Arun Jaitley takes a dig at Congress for appointing Lt Gen DS Hooda, says late acceptance of surgical strike

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in a blog post published on February 22, lambasted the Opposition for allegedly politicizing the Pulwama terror attack of February 14.

Taking a dig at the Congress party for appointing Lt General (Retd) DS Hooda for heading a panel on national security, Jaitley said it is “intriguing” that the “party which has ruled the country for over half a century needs to be educated on national security concerns”.

Lt Gen Hooda was the Northern Army Commander during the surgical strike and oversaw the operation which took place in late September 2016.

Jaitley said, “It is a belated and grudging recognition and acceptance of the surgical strikes of 2016 with which the General was intrinsically associated.”

In his post titled, What its Advisors Must Tell the Congress Party on National Security, the finance minister attacked the Congress for “triviliasing” terrorism and warned the party against projecting a “divided India” to the world vis-à-vis fighting terrorism. “When the world is rallying around India, the Opposition should not be striking a discordant note,” Jaitley warned.

Invoking the JNU incident, the Ishrat Jehan case and the Batla House encounter, Jaitley reprimanded the Congress for “supporting extremists and separatists” and “standing shoulder to shoulder with the terrorists”.  "There is no freedom of speech to advocate a break-up of India," he added

He asked the Grand Old Party to not “encourage indiscriminate illegal migration into India”, referring to the Opposition blocking the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

He finally castigated the Congress for consistently attacking the ruling NDA government on the Rafale Deal, saying, “To serve petty political gains, do not politicise defence procurement on false and imaginary facts.  It hurts defence preparedness.”