New Delhi: The BJP on March 20 stepped up attacks on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and maintained that while an individual could speak outside or inside the country, but one should be mindful of the sense of responsibility.
“If any individual goes outside the country he has the freedom to speak but along with that freedom comes what I call the need to have a sense of responsibility,” Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters.
“We are the world’s oldest democracy but Rahul Gandhi goes to the UK and says Indian democracy is facing an attack on the basic structure,” he lamented.
The Minister said Rahul Gandhi should tender an apology “categorically and unequivocally”. “Rahul also said the core of BJP ideology is cowardice. I don’t know what he is trying to say. Today India is the 5th largest economy, and soon we will be 4th largest economy,” Hardeep Singh Puri said.
Castigating the former Congress president for hailing China’s Belt & Road Initiative “as a visionary step”, Hardeep Singh Puri maintained, “Does he know that China’s BRI goes through Pakistan-occupied Jammu-Kashmir?”
On domestic politics, Hardeep Singh Puri recalled that under Rahul’s grandmother Indira Gandhi, Article 356 was invoked 150 times and legitimately elected State Governments were suspended and dismissed.
The BJP fielded Hardeep Singh Puri to slam Rahul Gandhi’s UK remarks close on the heels of pro-Khalistani elements vandalising the Indian High Commission in London.
“India finds unacceptable the indifference of the UK Government to the security of Indian diplomatic premises and personnel in the UK. It is expected that the UK Government would take immediate steps to identify, arrest and prosecute each one of those involved in the incident, and put in place stringent measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents,” an MEA statement said.
India has demanded an “explanation” for the complete absence of British security that allowed Khalistani elements to enter the High Commission premises.
On March 19, a group of Khalistan supporters demonstrated outside the Indian High Commission, sloganeering with flags and posters of separatist leader Waris Punjab De Chief Amritpal Singh. The posters, with Singh’s photo, said: FreeAmritpalSingh, WeWantJustice, WeStandWithAmritpalSingh.
A man was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder, reports said.
Meanwhile, Punjab police launched a manhunt for the Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh and authorities shut mobile internet in Punjab and arrested 112 of his supporters. The police said that its “manhunt” was ongoing, and the overall “situation is under control”.
An official spokesperson of the Punjab Police said that Amritpal Singh remains a fugitive, and efforts are being made to arrest him, reports said.
