Karnataka, May 3 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched yet another round of salvo against the Congress and trying to strike chord with sentiment of the locals in poll-bound Karnataka said former top army officials from the state Gen K S Thimayya and Field Marshal K M Cariappa were repeatedly insulted by Congress leadership.
“In 1948 Gen Thimayya-led Indian forces to a decisive victory against Pakistan. But the officer and’Karnataka ke veer putra (brave son of Karnataka)’ who led saving Jammua and Kashmir for India was repeatedly insulted by the then Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru and Defence Minister KrishnaMenon. Such insults had forced Gen Thimayya to resign,” Prime Minister said addressing an election rally here.
He said similarly, Field Marshal who led Indian forces during 1962 India-China conflict was also “insulted”. Modi said such things are nothing new or isolated instances as even present day’s Congress leaders have used abusive language for the incumbent army chief Gen Bipin Rawat.
He said a senior Congress leader did not hesitate to call Gen Rawat “a goonda (rowdy)”. Prime Minister wondered why the Congress leadership did not initiate any action against such Congress leaders.
He also cited instances in history wherein Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s legacy was ignored and insulted by the Congress. Mr Modi said Sardar Patel had played a key role in ‘uniting Kalaburagi’ region into India but maintained that the Congress party has always ignored this fact. The Congress party always gets unnerved when it comes to the legacy of Sardar Patel”. “The very name of Patel causes sleepless nights for a particular Congress family,” he said.
He complimented local population and BJP youth wing for setting up a martyrs’ memorial and hastened to that”what the local people had done could have been done by the Congress government too.
Referring to recent Vande Mataram row vis-a-vis Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister said what better can be expected of a party whose top leader does not have respect for the national song.
With the temperature soaring over 44 degrees celcius, a huge gathering waited for Mr Modi, who was behind schedule by an hour and started the second day of his campaign in the state for the May 12 polls. He would be addressing rallies at Ballari and Bengaluru too, today.
In all Mr Modi would be addressing nearly 20 meetings across the state with the last one slated for May 9 evening at Bidar. (UNI)
