Smarting from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s accusation that the Congress is politicising “ceasefire violations,” the opposition party shot back on Friday that he had conveniently forgotten his own criticism of the UPA government during such stand-offs along the border in the past decade.
Mr. Modi was suffering from “selective amnesia,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said. The Congress would stand with the government in fighting any challenge to national security. “But to suggest that the Opposition should not seek accountability from the government is to evade accountability.”
Comments flaggedFlagging a series of comments made by Mr. Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr. Singhvi said the Congress would not do to the Modi government what the BJP had consistently done to the UPA dispensation. Some of his statements that the Congress flagged are “China intrudes into our borders, Pakistan kills our soldiers time and again, but Centre doesn’t act!” on August 11, 2013; “Dastardly ambush by Pakistan ... leading to death of five Indian soldiers is unacceptable” on August 6, 2013; and “The problem is not at the border; the problem is in New Delhi’’ on September 13, 2013.