New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday objected strongly to BJP MP Ram Chander Jangra’s remarks that tourists should have put up a fight against terrorists in Pahalgam, demanding his sacking and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s apology in the matter.
The prime minister and the BJP leadership’s silence should be seen as a “tacit approval” of Jangra’s statement, said the opposition party. Its chief Mallikarjun Kharge claimed BJP leaders were competing with each other to malign the Pahalgam victims and the armed forces.
Jangra’s comments are being seen by the Congress as the latest in a series of deplorable remarks made recently by BJP leaders — Madhya Pradesh minister Vijay Shah and the state’s deputy chief minister Jagdish Devda.
While the Congress claimed that Devda had said the entire Indian Army and brave soldiers were bowing at the feet of PM Modi, Shah had to apologise after his remarks linking the religion of terrorists behind the Pahalgam strike with that of Col Sofiya Qureshi, triggered an outrage.
Col Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh had briefed the media alongside Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and on Operation Sindoor.
Chiding the BJP in a post in Hindi on X, Kharge said, “The BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ram Chander Jangra’s shameful statement has once again exposed the petty mentality of RSS-BJP.
“MP Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda insulted our brave Army, but PM Modi did not take any action. MP Minister Vijay Shah made lewd comments on our brave colonel, but has not been sacked to date,” he said.
In the long post, he noted that when the wife of the naval officer killed in Pahalgam was being trolled on social media, “Modi ji was silent even then”.
“Narendra Modi ji, you say that you have sindoor in your veins… If that is so, then you should sack these foul-mouthed leaders of yours for the respect of women,” Kharge added.
Echoing the party chief’s sentiments, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that BJP leaders were constantly insulting the Indian Army and the martyrs, “which exposes their petty and lowly mindset”.
“This shameful statement of Jangra shows that the BJP, intoxicated with power, has become so insensitive that instead of blaming the security lapse… in Pahalgam… BJP MPs are questioning the martyrs and their wives,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
Claiming the BJP has taken no action against Shah and Devda, he said the new statement is “highly objectionable”.
“Why should the silence of Prime Minister Modi and the BJP leadership not be considered a tacit approval of these statements? Our clear demand is – Prime Minister Modi should apologise for this shameful statement and expel MP Ram Chander Jangra from the party,” Ramesh added.
Later, addressing a press conference, All India Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba condemned the “insult” of the Army and martyrs’ families by BJP leaders and sought the prime minister and BJP president’s apology.
She also alleged that the BJP is desperate to give entire credit of Operation Sindoor to PM Modi instead of defence forces.
She asked if opposition MPs can be sent to foreign countries as part of delegations, why a special session of Parliament cannot be convened to discuss the issue.
Lamba played a few purported videos of the BJP leaders, including the Haryana MP, Madhya Pradesh deputy chief minister, and a minister, in which they are heard “insulting” the defence forces.
She claimed Jangra suggested that wives of the tourists killed in the Pahalgam terror attack “lacked courage and the spirit of warrior women and if they had fought back, casualties would have been lower”.
The Mahila Congress president said the law will take its own course as an FIR has been registered in one of the cases, and that too at the instance of the high court, and an SIT has been constituted on the orders of the Supreme Court. But she questioned the BJP for “defending and protecting” its leaders like Devda, Shah and Jangra.
Lamba said these leaders seem to have been inspired by Prime Minister Modi himself, who, she claimed, had said on record that a trader is more courageous than a soldier. She also played a purported recording of the prime minister saying so.
Jangra on Saturday stoked a row by saying that the tourists who came under terrorist attack in the verdant meadows of Baisaran in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, should have put up a fight and the women, who lost their husbands, should have acted like ‘veerangna’ (warrior women).
He claimed that the number of casualties would have been low had the tourists undergone Agniveer training and the ladies “lacked” the spirit of warrior women.
