Mumbai: Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said the number of terrorists killed in the Balakot air strikes was “high”, and accused the Congress of politicising the antiterror operation by the IAF. He hit out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for using “foul language” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Claiming the BJP would get a clear mandate in the Lok Sabha elections, Singh said he has no doubt in his mind that NDA allies will retain power with a three-fourths majority.
He said the Congress is politicising the Balakot air strikes and dismissed its demand of proof of casualties in the operation as “uncalled for”. The IAF had struck a Jaishe- Mohammad terror training camp in Pakistan on February 26 in response to the February 14 Pulwama attack . “Should our forces have stopped there to count the dead bodies? Brave jawans do not count the dead bodies, they keep marching ahead… eagles count bodies,” he said. “Had there been 1, 2, 3 or 4 casualties, then we could have given a figure, but how can we tell (the exact casualties) when this figure was so high? “I head the intelligence agencies.
I would like to say we carried out the air strikes on the basis of credible and actionable inputs, and without violating Pakistan’s sovereignty,” the home minister said. Singh said if the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was hailed for splitting Pakistan in 1971, then why can’t Modi be lauded for the Balakot air strikes. He addressed two election rallies in neighbouring Palghar district in support of Shiv Sena candidates from Thane and Palghar Lok Sabha constituencies. “When these people (Congress) won (assembly polls) in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last year, then EVMs were right, but when they saw we are inching towards victory, they again started crying foul on EVMs.”
