New Delhi/Jammu: The BJP on Sunday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's "uncalled for and unwarranted" attack on the government and the RSS and asked him to acknowledge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led dispensation created the conditions that allowed him to unfurl the national flag in Srinagar's Lal Chowk.
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it is Modi's decisive leadership that led to the revocation of Article 370, bringing peace to the Valley with the tricolour now being unfurled on Independence Day and Republic Day even in the erstwhile den of terror outfits. Other BJP leaders echoed the view with party spokesperson and former Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore saying that Modi has created such an atmosphere in Kashmir that any Indian can now hoist the national flag with pride at Lal Chowk.
He asked Gandhi to thank the prime minister for the change in the Valley. In a swipe at the Congress' handling of militancy in Kashmir, Prasad told reporters that what happened under the 10-year rule of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi and, in general, in the reign of the Congress, is known to people. The number of tourists has gone up manifold as peace has returned to the Valley, he said. "What is indeed tragic is that even after over 3,000 km of the so-called yatra, Gandhi's view about the RSS and the BJP remains the same as he made unfounded insinuations. It is not a Bharat Jodo Yatra but a political campaign against the BJP government in general and PM Modi in particular," the former Law minister said.
The most important point Gandhi needs to acknowledge as to who created the conditions for him to unfurl the national flag in Srinagar, he said. Gandhi again made some uncalled for and unfounded allegations, Prasad said. Gandhi accused the RSS and the BJP of fomenting division and hate in the country and said his yatra, which concludes on Monday, is aimed at offering an alternative vision.
He alleged that the government believed in denying that China has "taken our land". This is an extremely dangerous approach, he said. Gandhi unfurled the tricolour at the historic clock tower of Lal Chowk, popularly known as 'Ghanta Ghar', as part of his Bharat Jodo Yatra. Prasad reminded the former Congress president that his father Rajiv Gandhi, grandmother Indira Gandhi and great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, all former PMs, kept hurling "abuses" at the RSS but it went from strength to strength with its sister organisations while the opposition party has been shrinking.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina said the credit for Gandhi unfurling the national flag goes to Modi who normalised the situation in the Valley with the abrogation of Article 370. Gandhi was able to do it because of the policies of Prime Minister Modi who dealt a severe blow to separatism and terrorism by abrogating Article 370 (in 2019) and strengthened nationalist forces, paving way for the normalisation of the situation and return of peace to the region, he said in Jammu.
Raina said the Congress ruled the country for most part of the past seven decades but none of its leaders dared to unfurl the tricolour at Lal Chowk. Modi, along with the then BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi, unfurled the national flag at the same venue when terrorism was at its peak in 1990, he said. Today, peace and normalcy have returned to Kashmir due to the efforts of Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Gandhi was able to move to Lal Chowk and unfurl the tricolour which none of his party leaders could do in the past 70 years, the BJP leader said.
Referring to the recent statement of AICC in-charge J-K Rajni Patil that Gandhi will unfurl the national flag at the party headquarters rather than Lal Chowk which is the agenda of the RSS, Raina said, Though late, the Congress has started working on the nationalist agenda of the RSS. "We want to tell Gandhi and his party leaders to learn from the RSS members who have nationalist sentiments in their hearts and work for the nation," he said in a swipe at the Congress. (PTI)
