Modi government is 'callous' towards national security, says Congress

The Congress on Saturday (January 13) accused the Narendra Modi government of adopting a "callous attitude" towards national security and viewing it from the electoral lens and for the prime minister's "self-aggrandisement".

Army Chief General Manoj Pande's recent remarks are a timely reminder of the "serious deterioration" of India's national security environment, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.

Chinese incursions

"General Pande's remark that 'our attempt is to continue talks (with China) to go back to the status quo ante which existed in the middle of 2020' is a reminder that the Chinese continue to deny Indian troops access to 2,000 square km of territory in Ladakh almost four years after their intrusion," Ramesh said in a statement.

He said the Army chief's observation that Rajouri-Poonch had seen increased terrorist activities and that "support infrastructure … from across the border continues" showed that the menace of cross-border terrorism continued.

Kashmir terror

This went against repeated false claims that terrorism would end because of the 2016 demonetisation or the removal of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, he added.

Since August 5, 2019, more than 160 troops have been killed in terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress leader said.

"The Modi government's callous attitude towards national security, which it looks at solely from the lens of electoral advantage, is also evident from the revelation in former Army Chief MM Naravane's book that the Army was 'taken by surprise' by the Agnipath scheme and that 'for the Navy and Air Force, it came like a bolt from the blue'.

Personality cult

"All of these examples show that for the PM, even national security has been reduced to an instrument of his personality cult and self-aggrandisement, at the cost of the country," Ramesh alleged.

Ramesh also said that the prime minister's clean chit to China on June 19, 2020, when he said there was no incursion, was an insult to the fallen soldiers and contributed to continuing Chinese control of 2,000 square km.

Maldives, Bhutan

"Meanwhile, China is making inroads across our neighbourhood. The most recent examples are the fact that President Mohamed Muizzu became the first president of the Maldives to visit China before visiting India and China's continuing inroads into the territory of our close ally Bhutan.

"The PM appears to believe that beach visits and social media campaigns are a substitute for real action to protect India's national interests," Ramesh said in his statement.

(With agency inputs)