‘3rd term chances for BJP getting bleaker’
Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that the BJP’s chances of returning to power are becoming bleak while predicting a rich harvest for her party in Bengal.
The ruling BJP was in the line of fire on Wednesday after the party’s ally in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP, said the FIR against Major Aditya of 10 Garhwal Rifles for alleged murder was filed after getting Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s permission.
The FIR was lodged with J & K police after an army convoy at Ganowpora village in Shopian came under intense stone-pelting by a mob of over 250 stone-pelters on 27 January. A junior commissioned officer in the convoy was reportedly hit on the head and fell unconscious. Stone-pelters attempted to set vehicles on fire, forcing the army to open fire in self-defence. Seven army men suffered injuries, even as three civilians succumbed to the bullet injuries, according to reports.
BJP spokesmen, Sambit Patra and Amit Malviya, said on Wednesday the FIR against Major Aditya could be set aside in a court of law. The party, however, had nothing to say about the PDP leader and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s remarks in the Assembly that prior permission of the Defence Minister was taken before lodging the FIR against Major Aditya.
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BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy demanded the Defence Minister’s clarification on the FIR against Major Aditya. “I am wondering why Nirmala Sitharaman has not given any clarification. Do we take her silence to mean yes. If it is then it is truly against party policies, the sentiment of the people of India and against patriotism.
I have decided that if she doesn’t give a clarification by the morning of February 2, then I will raise the issue in the House,” Swamy said. He has demanded immediate withdrawal of FIR against the army officer.
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