Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma on Wednesday targeted the arch rival Congress for dishonouring the Army and acting against the interests of the soldiers and committing scams in defence procurements from foreign companies.
Speaking at the Shaurya Ke SaathSankalp Diwas programme after unveiling a statue of Lt General Sagat SinghRathore in Churu city, Sharma said, “Since the installation of Narendra Modi-led NDA government in the country in 2014, continued initiatives and efforts have been made for strengthening the Army set-up and welfare of the soldiers. “Continuous steps were taken under the guidance and leadership of Prime Minister ModiJi for updation and capability building of armed forces, cautious procurement of high quality arms, ammunition and essential equipment were ensured from foreign firms. Moreover, focus was kept on developing – enhancing our capacity and capability of enhancing domestic production in the defence manufacturing sector.”
Contrary to this, he said, the Congress-led previous regimes had always overlooked the needs of the armed forces and interests of soldiers. All this, they did for their political gains under previous rules while under the Modi regime they have been opposing every of our government’s initiatives taken for the cause of the nation.
Under their regimes, they kept in abeyance even the soldiers’ long-pending demand of One Rank; One Pension. They used to procure poor quality of defence items from foreign manufacturers at high prices and thus put in peril the safety (of life) of our soldiers. Their leaders dishonoured the Army by questioning the success and effectiveness of Surgical Strikes, the Balakot air strikes by our airforce and even spoke against Operation Sindoor.
Their leaders used to undertake foreign visits and dishonour the Indian nation by their (offending) utterances, the CM alleged.
He also criticised the grand old party’s stance on defeat of the Women’s Quota related 131st constitution amendment bill and the failure to keep the promise made by the previous government for fetching the Yamuna river water from Haryana for the areas of Shekhawati. .
Sikkim Governor Om Mathur, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, senior BJP leader and former Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Rajendra Rathore also spoke on the occasion. These senior leaders recalled memoirs and relieved deeds of bravery and leadership demonstrated by Lt General Sagat SinghRathore in every ward including the Goa liberation task against Portuguese forces, the Indo China Nathula pass war and the 1971 Indo Pak Bangla war in Dhaka.