New Delhi, February 21: The Congress on Thursday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “indulging in self-promotion by way of a film shoot at the Jim Corbett park even minutes after the Pulwama terror attack”.
Addressing a press conference, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the PM continued shooting with the Discovery channel at the Corbett after the news of killing of 40 CRPF jawans broke.
“The pseudo-nationalist PM continued shooting for his self-promotion even after news of the terror attack,” Surjewala said, citing minute-by-minute detail of the PM’s programme on February 14, the day of the attack.
Surjewala’s attack was based on media reports that claimed the PM was in Nainital shooting that day after the news of Pulwama attack broke at 3.10 pm.
Surjewala flashed media reports and said, “The PM continued shooting and then went out of the Corbett and waved at supporters who chanted ‘Modi, Modi’. He then went to a local guesthouse and had tea and snacks. Even when he returned to Delhi he first went to his residence and only then came to the airport to lay tributes to the soldiers whose bodies lay in wait for the PM for over 40 minutes.”
Surjewala also targeted Tourism Minister KJ Alphons for his “selfie with the bodies of slain soldiers” and BJP MP and national executive committee member Sakshi Maharaj for “politicising the last journey of a soldier”.
He said, “This is the character of the PM and his party. For them self-promotion is all that matters. This is the first time any head of state has insulted the sacrifice of soldiers in this way,” Surjewala added.
He also questioned BJP chief Amit Shah for saying at a poll rally after the attack that the sacrifice of soldiers would not go waste because the country is in the hands of the BJP and not the Congress.
The Congress questioned the PM for not declaring a national mourning of a few days despite demands from political parties and charged the PM with going ahead with major programmes and announcements in poll season to draw political mileage.
The Congress had earlier said that they would stand with the Government in this time of trial and would back any step the government took.
Returning with its attack on the government on Thursday, the Congress said, “We are bringing facts to public knowledge, including how PM Modi insulted the memory of dead soldiers by shooting a film right after their death.”
