Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ego stood in the way of the NDA government according shaheed (martyr) status to Central paramilitary forces personnel killed in action.
Mr. Gandhi, however, expressed the hope that the Prime Minister would act on the Supreme Court’s order for better pay to the paramilitary forces personnel.
“We must recognise the sacrifices of our paramilitary forces, like the CRPF & award their martyrs the title of ‘Shaheed’. Even if the PM’s ego will not allow him to act on my request, I hope he will act on the SC’s order for better pay to the paramilitary,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted. The Congress chief attached a media report that claimed that before the Pulwama terror attack, the Centre had opposed salary hike to the CRPF in the Supreme Court.
On a day when Mr. Modi dedicated the National War Memorial to the nation, Congress leaders accused the NDA government of doing politics over soldiers.
Tagging another news report that claimed that the Centre had cut scholarships of children of ex-servicemen, Congress’s communication chief Randeep Surjewala tweeted that the country won’t tolerate any insult to the soldiers.
“Modi ji can spend thousands of crores of rupees for self-promotion but do not have money for the heroic youths of the country,” tweeted Mr. Surjewala.
Ahead of the inauguration of the National War Memorial in Delhi, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal asked what had Mr. Modi done to save the lives of soldiers in the past five years.
“We stand by the war memorial. It is for the Prime Minister to tell us how we save the lives of our security forces,” Mr. Sibal said.