Army not your personal property, Rahul Gandhi tells Narendra Modi

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Rahul Gandhi. File Photo

New Delhi, May 4:Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the BJP would not return to power after the 2019 Lok Sabha election and taunted the PM saying the Army is not his personal property.

“The Army is not the personal property of PM Modi. The Army, Navy, Air Force are of the country and not of one person. The Congress never politicised the armed forces. Surgical strikes happened before and the Army did those,” Gandhi said addressing a press conference.

He said more than half the election is over and there is now a clear sense that PM Modi is not returning to power.“We also want to ask the PM what his delivery on the 2014 poll promises is. Where are the two crore jobs? Where is Rs 15 lakh? It’s is all well to talk of nationalism but he should also answer development questions,” Gandhi said.

He said the Congress and other parties were one in fighting against terrorism, but he wanted to ask the PM as to who sent terrorist Masood Azhar to Pakistan.

“The Congress government did not release Azhar. Who released him from the Indian jail? The BJP government released him. The Congress will do a much better job with national security because we have a history,” the Congress chief said, adding that the Army had won every war it had fought and it is unfortunate for the PM to politicise it.“Our Army has won all the wars. It’s terrific. So the BJP should stop politicising the Army,” Gandhi said, adding that the Congress had delivered on its poll promises in the states where it is in power and would also deliver on its Lok Sabha manifesto promises.

“Nyay will be implemented and we will show how to implement it. It has percolated down. We will give 22 lakh jobs. I won’t promise two crore jobs a year but we will give 22 lakh youth government jobs and ten lakh people jobs in the gram panchayats,” he said targeting Modi on the Rafale deal and daring him to hold a debate with him.