BREAKS RANKS WITH CONGRESS ON EVIDENCE, SAYING ASKING FOR IT WAS ‘INSULTING ARMY’ Arvind Kejriwal has an income tax background and suspects everything. He believes in the doctrine of guilty unless proven innocent. CAPT AMARINDER SINGH, Punjab Congress president

CHANDIGARH: Breaking ranks with the Congress that has asked the Narendra Modi government to counter Pakistani propaganda on cross-LoC strikes, Punjab unit chief Captain Amarinder Singh said on Wednesday that anyone asking for evidence was “insulting the army”.

“When the director general of military operations says terror launch pads across the LoC were destroyed, I believe every word he says. I have been a captain in the army and served it in the 1965 war. I have friends in the army and I am in regular touch with my regiment. I do not need a proof as I believe in the valour of my country’s forces,” Amarinder told HTinaninterview. CHANDIGARH: Breaking ranks with the Congress that has asked the Narendra Modi government to counter Pakistani propaganda on cross-LoC strikes, Punjab unit chief Captain Amarinder Singh said on Wednesday that anyone asking for evidence was “insulting the army”.

“When the director general of military operations says terror launch pads across the LoC were destroyed, I believe every word he says. I have been a captain in the army and served it in the 1965 war. I am a writer on military history. I have friends in the army and I am in regular touch with my regiment. I do not need a proof as I believe in the valour of my country’s forces,” Amarinder told HT in an interview.

His views are contrary to the party’s as Congress spokesperson RPN Singh said: “Subject to the considerations of national security, we again request the government to use all information, evidence and instruments at their disposal in calling the Pakistani bluff.”

Amarinder, however, had opposed the evacuation of border villages in Punjab and called for defying government orders.

TARGETS KEJRIWAL Training his guns on Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Amarinder said the Delhi chief minister comes from an income tax background and suspects everything. “He believes in the doctrine of guilty unless proven innocent. Can we believe the propaganda of Pakistan, which is showing the international media — and CNN even broadcasts it — by putting its own men dressed in olive green uniform as Indian soldiers at the LoC? He is a joker to ask for proof to unmask such propaganda,” Amarinder said.

The Congress, which has come back into Punjab’s poll game not as much owing to its own campaign but recent setbacks suffered by the AAP starting from manifesto goof-up, sacking of its state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur and reverse swings being played by cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, has stolen a march over Kejriwal’s party in the poll-bound state by questioning the evacuation of border villages after the strikes.

Backed by loyalist MLAs from border areas, Amarinder has thrown the ruling SAD-BJP alliance off balance by asking villagers to defy government evacuation orders. He attacked both the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Parkash Singh Badal government in Punjab on the motive behind the evacuation without discrediting the surgical strikes.

“Badal is playing Modi’s game of creating war hysteria with an eye on the Uttar Pradesh polls to show his chest of 56 inches has expanded to 58. Both the striking and holding units of the army are in their barracks in places such as Bathinda, Jalandhar and Ambala. Why did the CM try to create panic by displacing border villagers? On Wednesday, he ordered border schools be reopened. How can children go to school if their families are told to move out? I asked villagers not to be misled by Badal and stay put in their villages and look after their crop, cattle and children,” he said.

DISAGREES WITH NIRUPAM

Amarinder, however, distanced himself from remarks of Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam saying he is not concerned about what a party leader said in Maharashtra. On Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala asking the Modi government to release evidence to discredit Pakistan propaganda that no strikes took place, he said former Union minister P Chidambaram said that surgical strikes took place even during the UPA rule but it never made them public. “The party is opposed to the Modi government’s bid to take political mileage out of the strikes,” the former CM said.

                                                                

The AAP, which is battling hostile fire over Kejriwal’s demand for proof even in Punjab, is now toeing Amarinder’s line. Its leaders led by state convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich (Ghuggi) on Tuesday asked Badal at a press meet that if the evacuation orders came from the Centre, why was the BSF unaware? He was referring to BSF director general KK Sharma’s tweet: “India never gave orders for evacuation of villages near international border post(s).”

Have proof of strike, but will not release it: Centre

No chest-thumping needed, PM tells his ministers

NEW DELHI: The army has handed over video evidence of its September 29 surgical strikes on terrorist launchpads in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir but the government doesn’t see the need to make them public, two senior ministers said on Wednesday.

PTISoldiers patrol the LoC in Pallanwal sector. After a brief lull, Pakistan Army resumed shelling a major portion of the LoC on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked his ministers not to indulge in chest-thumping over the raid, sources said, adding the army, too, is not in favour of making public the details of the sensitive operation.

Urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu rejected the opposition’s demand for proof of the strikes, saying any further discussions would be an “insult” to the army. “There is no need to respond to such irresponsible comments and demands. Fortunately, the Congress has also realised its mistake and distanced itself from the comments of its leaders,” Naidu told mediapersons a day after he said that the proof would be presented at an appropriate time.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has also concurred with the army. Parrikar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were shown unedited footage of the September 29 operation on October 1, followed by a presentation of an edited version the next day by the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO). After seeing the visuals, Parrikar conveyed to the Prime Minister that he was satisfied and felt there was no need to release the footage.

Hindustan Times had reported on October 3 that Modi had on September 23 — five days after an army camp in Uri was attacked by militants that India says were based out of Pakistan — first told Parrikar and Doval of his decision to strike across the LoC.

“The opposition should understand the difference between a covert and overt strike. And it is not incumbent on the Indian army to release video footage every time they do their duty,” a senior official said on conditions of anonymity.

South Block sources said there was no need to rub Pakistan’s nose in the dirt after the successful surgical strike. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and a section of Congress leaders have been calling for evidence, couching it as a must to debunk “Pakistan propaganda” that the raid was nothing but crossborder fighting.

The Congress repeated its demand on Wednesday but tempered it by saying the government should provide proof only after considering national security. Saying it had unequivocally supported the armed forces and the government on the cross-LoC action, the Congress said it was time to “expose the malicious lies and false propaganda” of Pakistan.

Several ministers had taken on the opposition for “questioning” army’s courage in demanding evidence for the raid. “I don’t think any Indian citizen has got any doubt… It would be an insult to the army if we further discuss,” Naidu said. “Only Pakistan is saying something because they have to say something. They are not in a position to conduct funeral or last rites of their own citizens…This is their culture.”

Sources in the army said the force was not in favour of releasing the evidence though the final decision lay with the government. The army would like to keep under wraps the tactics of its special forces. The army, they said, was proud of its apolitical and secular credentials and didn’t want to be dragged into political wrangling.