Standoff between the Congress and BJP over Manmohan Singh’s statement

Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh recently released a statement on the Galwan valley attacks, in which he had said that the Prime Minister must “always be mindful of the implications of his words”. He also said that  the Prime Minister and the government must “rise to the occasion to ensure justice for Colonel B. Santosh Babu and our jawans who have made the ultimate sacrifice and resolutely defended our territorial integrity.”

This was in direct reference to remarks made by Prime Minister Modi during an all-party meet. These were seconded by the party’s senior leader Rahul Gandhi, who called the former PM’s advice “important”, adding “for the betterment of India, I hope the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) will accept it politely” in a recent tweet.

BJP President JP Nadda came out in reply to these comments, saying that when Dr Singh had been the Prime Minister, he “abjectly surrendered” hundreds of square kilometres of India’s land to China and presided over 600 incursions made by the neighbouring country.

This was countered by Congress national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, in a volley of tweets saying “This would be the biggest disservice to our armed forces and our 20 martyrs. Don’t buckle down, have the strength to rise to the occasion. We`ll give the government every support,” Surjewala, in a tweet, said.