JALANDHAR: Former
Punjab minister and senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia has taken a strong exception to Punjab chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh’s statement asking the union government to send "
RSS Cadres to the battle ground" (at Indo-China Border).
“Such type of statement is not expected from such person who himself had served as Captain in the Army. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is a cultural and nationalistic organization that had played a dominant role in helping the Army during 1962, 1965 and 1972 wars,” Kalia said in a statement issued here on Friday.
Notably,
Punjab CM
had questioned the union government that why were the soldiers sent to defend the LAC unarmed. "Somebody should be answerable for this. Why were they sent without weapons? This is not the stone age that you send unarmed soldiers to fight the Chinese. Send RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) workers with lathis instead not our soldiers," he had said. Apparently this mocking dig at the RSS has not down well in the Sangh Parivar but in place of RSS itself reacting to it, BJP reacted to it.
“To involve the RSS by Captain Amrinder Singh amounts to politicalising the serious national issue of Indo-China Border dispute, whereas the Government of India is adhering to the Indo-China agreement signed in 1996,” Kalia said. He held that Punjab CM had not apparently read this agreement. The BJP leader asked him “to show solidarity with the country as you have been doing so in the past on the other national issues like Balakot surgical strikes etc. and should not get swayed by the childish leadership of Congress.
In his statement on Friday Kalia also claimed “in recognition to the active support of RSS to the Army during 1962 war against China, then PM Jawahar Lal Nehru had invited RSS Swayamsevaks to join the march-past on January, 26,1963. Consequently a contingent of 3000 RSS Swayamsevaks joined the Republic Day Parade in 1963.”
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