BJP hits back with ‘Jai Pakistan Yatra’ jibe after Congress’s ‘how many Rafales lost’ remark

Even as the multi-party delegations are visiting countries to expose Pakistan’s continued support for terrorism, back home, the ruling BJP and opposition Congress are engaged in a war of words over Operation Sindoor.

 

Yesterday, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Congress’s Jai Hind Yatra, and asked him to come clean on how many Rafale aircraft India lost in the conflict with Pakistan.

 

Responding to his remarks, the BJP alleged that the opposition party's ongoing 'Jai Hind Yatra' looks more like "Jai Pakistan Yatra”. Slamming Reddy, Rahul Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders for questioning the Narendra Modi government following the conflict with Pakistan, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said, “[Rahul] Gandhi never asked about the details of terror sites and air bases destroyed in Pakistan but his party has enquired about the losses of Indian jets more frequently than the neighbouring country.”

 

“These leaders are like "Babbar" (warrior) of Pakistan, and Gabbar of India,” he said, invoking the famous villain from the iconic film Sholay.

 

Patra took a further dig at the Congress, saying while the Congress MPs who are part of the seven all-party delegations currently on a visit to world capitals, “are doing a good job”, senior party leader and chief spokesperson Jairam Ramesh “in one breath is comparing them to terrorists”. Ramesh had said that the terrorists behind the April 22 Pahalgam attack are roaming, and so are the MPs abroad.

 

Patra added that the Congress leaders’ ‘controversial’ remarks on conflict with Pakistan and the suspension of Indus Water Treaty, since after the Pahalgam attack, are lowering the morale of the Indian armed forces.

 

“The Congress should suspend its Jai Hind Yatra, which is more like Jai Pakistan Yatra, and instead consult with Pakistan and hold a joint press conference,” he said.

 

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and senior leader Salman Khurshid, both of who are part of the multi-party delegations, are in the line of fire within the party for comments perceived to be in favour of the Narendra Modi government.

 

Tharoor, while in Panama, had said that India crossed the LoC for the first time in 2016 during a surgical strike. A section of Congress leaders had then claimed the country had done such operations in the past, too. Khurshid, on the other hand, had lauded the changes brought by the revocation of Article 370.

 

Reddy had urged PM Modi to answer the people of India how many Rafales India lost in the conflict with Pakistan, and added that contracts were awarded to people close to Modi, who then purchased Rafale aircraft.

 

“After four days of war, we do not know who threatened whom and who succumbed to whom. All of a sudden, US President Donald Trump came out and said he threatened India and stopped the war," the Telangana CM had said.

India