Using security situation for LS polls: PM Modi and other BJP leaders questioned by the Opposition

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that the details of the air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan’s Balakot should be made public.

“We have the right to know how many people died in the air strike and who they were. What was the actual incident? We have not received any detail. We love the nation, but we don’t like to see people play politics over bodies of our jawans,” the chief minister told journalists at the state administrative headquarters on Thursday. Banerjee said that no action was taken in the past five years despite attacks in Uri and Pathankot.

“There have been terror attacks in Uri and Pathankot but no action was taken. The government had received an advisory regarding the attacks, but no preventive action was taken and the lives of the jawans were put to danger,” she said.

Significantly, Banerjee’s words come on the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to BJP workers at the party’s mega event, ‘Mera Booth, Sabse Mazbooth’ through a video-conference that was tipped to be the world’s biggest such event. PM Modi addressed over one crore BJP volunteers who will operate at the level of polling booths in upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Narendra Modi said at the event that the country will ‘fight as one’ and ‘win as one’.

He stated that terror activities were supported by the enemies of India who wanted to stall the “progress” of the country. Urging people to ‘stand united’ and ‘stand with our soldiers’, Modi disregarded the criticism he faced from the Opposition parties for focusing on elections at a time when tensions have escalated between India and Pakistan.

Not just PM Modi, for the past few days, other BJP leaders, including the party’s national president Amit Shah and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa have spoken of the air strikes conducted by the Indian Air Force across the Line of Border, linking them to winning the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Referring to the air strikes, Yeddyurappa has stated that it will help the BJP win more than 22 seats in the national elections in the state and that it had helped to create a ‘pro-Modi wave’.

In Ghazipur of Uttar Pradesh, Amit Shah had asked people to decide who was more capable of handling terrorism – the ‘gathbandhan’ of the Opposition parties or the current regime. He asked them to think about who could give a ‘mooh tod jawab’ or fitting reply to Pakistan other than Modi. Adding that the air strikes had brought a ‘sense of peace’ to the people, the BJP president congratulated the Prime Minister for displaying ‘political will power’ in curbing terrorism.

The opposition parties have criticised the government for not calling an all-party meeting, and slammed the Narendra Modi-led government for “blatant politicisation” of the security situation and death of armed personnel, and said they would now begin to question the Centre.