Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda has reacted to former prime minister and Congress leader Dr Manmohan Singh's statement on the ongoing stand-off between Indian and Chinese forces at the Line of Actual Control.
Calling Singh's statement a "mere wordplay", Nadda said that the "conduct of top leaders of the Congress party" has ensured that no Indian will believe him.
The former prime minister, in a press statement on Monday, 22 June, had slammed the BJP government for "comforting but false statements", and said that the prime minister must be mindful of his words, lest the Chinese use the government's statements against the country.
"India fully trusts and supports PM Narendra Modi. 130 crore Indians have seen his administrative experience in some of the most testing times, particularly how he has always put the well-being of the nation over and above everything else," Nadda wrote in a tweet.
Will BJP Chief Dare To Question PM Modi: P Chidambaram Hits Back
Hitting back at the BJP chief, former union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that Nadda "will not dare to ask" the prime minister to "explain the 2,264 Chinese incursions since 2015".
BJP Attacks Manmohan Singh
Sharing reactions of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and comparing it to that of leaders from other parties like YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Nadda said that while Singh called for unity, his strong words "fell flat".
Attacking Singh for his tenure as prime minister, he said that the Congress party had "surrendered over 43,000 km of Indian territory to the Chinese".
This and other "abject strategic and territorial surrender without a fight" during the UPA regime, belittled the forces, he said.
He also added that Singh presided over 600 incursions made by China between 2010 to 2013, and that while he can share his wisdom on many subjects, the responsibilities of the office of the prime minister aren't one of them.
He ended by asking Singh and the Congress party to "stop insulting our forces" and "questioning their valour", which is what they did after the surgical strikes, saying that "it's never too late to improve".
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