PM drawing political advantage from Pulwama attack, says Dinesh Gundu Rao

Bengaluru: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, Dinesh Gundu Rao on Monday accused the BJP of taking political mileage from the recent Pulwama attack in Kashmir, which left 44 CRPF soldiers dead.

Speaking to reporters here, he claimed the BJP was trying to use the incident to its advantage with the Lok Sabha polls approaching. "The number of terrorist attacks have increased in the last five years under the Modi government. This clearly shows that it has miserably failed to contain the growing military in the Jammu and Kashmir valley," he maintained.

Mr Gundu Rao said the previous UPA government at the Centre, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had also conducted four or five surgical strikes, but never tried to gain publicity from them.

"On the other hand, the Modi government, that conducted only one surgical strike post the Uri attack, has used it for its political gain. The question here is whether terrorism stopped after that surgical strike? No political party must try to gain political mileage from issues concerning the country's military," he stressed.

Maintaining that the Congress was ready to stand with the Modi government if it came up with a definite plan of action to stamp out militancy from the Kashmir valley, he claimed the BJP was, however, making use of Pulwama for political ends.

"Every citizen is a patriot, but the BJP leaders claim they are more patriotic than others. Others who speak of patriotism are being branded anti-nationals. Some organisations are behaving as if patriotism belongs to them and are creating animosity in the country," he charged.

Urban development minister, U T Khader wondered why Mr Modi had to go to Pakistan to enjoy a cup of tea with his counterpart to seek its friendship. " How is this right to do when everyone knows the true colours of Pakistan?" he asked.