Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh fired an emotional barb at the Congress on Thursday morning revealing he had been barred from attending his mother’s funeral while in prison during the Emergency.
”I was not given parole to attend my mother’s last rites during the Emergency and now they (Congress) call us dictators,” he told news agency ANI in an exclusive interview. Mr Singh had earlier said he had been jailed for 18 months after then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency.
“I had been interested in politics since my student (days) and then I joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the RSS, seen as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological mentor). Gradually I kept moving towards politics,” he had told students at an event in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh in June last year.
“I was sent to jail at 23 during the time of Emergency,” he said.
Mr Singh also repeated an offer of assistance to Pakistan – to combat terrorist activities on its soil. Speaking exclusively to news agency ANI, he said, “If Pakistan feels incapable, India is ready to cooperate to stop terrorism.” However, he also warned Pakistan that if its aim is to destabilise India by using terrorism, it would have to suffer the consequences.
The firm remark comes a week after he warned Pakistan that India will pursue any terrorist who tries to escape by crossing the border. “If they run to Pakistan, we will enter Pakistan to kill them,” he had said.
That remark was in the context of a report by British daily The Guardian, which accused Delhi of conducting targeted killings of terrorists in Pakistan.
The government has dismissed the claim as “false and malicious anti-India propaganda”.
READ | “False, Malicious”: Centre Blasts Report On Targeted Pak Assassinations
In its rebuttal, the External Affairs Ministry quoted its boss, S Jaishankar, who recently asserted that targeted killings on foreign soil is “not the Government of India’s policy”.
EP-158 with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh airs today at 5 PM IST
”I was not given parole to attend my mother’s last rites during the Emergency, and now they (Congress) call us dictators,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reveals the untold story of the 1975 Emergency
“If… pic.twitter.com/ORSOey6Fav
— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2024
Mr Jaishankar’s comment was in the context of claims by Canada’s Justin Trudeau, that “agents” of the Indian government were involved in the killing of a Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen and chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force, on that country’s soil.
The ministry’s denial was mentioned in The Guardian’s report, which claims the Indian government “has implemented a policy of targeting those it considers hostile to India”.
The Guardian claimed up to 20 such killings were carried out since the attack on Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama in February 2019, in which 40 men were killed.
Meanwhile, Mr Singh’s offer echoed those made in 2018 and 2019.
READ | Ready To Support Pakistan To Fight Terrorism On Its Soil: Rajnath Singh
On that occasion the Defence Minister also warned Islamabad that a “situation will be created (if it did not act on its own) that terror bases will be wiped out from Pakistan and no power will be able to stop this”.
“If Pakistan thinks it does not have strength to deal with terrorism… it can seek help,” he said. “India has shown it has the strength to not only strike from its soil… we can also strike on soil of another country.”
The Defence Minister’s comment then came a month after the Air Force’s “non-military, pre-emptive” strikes on terrorist bases in Pakistan’s Balakote, which were operated by the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed that was responsible for the Pulwama attack.
Months before that Mr Singh pointed to the United States’ action against terrorism in Afghanistan, and said, “I want to ask Pakistani Prime Minister (then Imran Khan) … if Taliban can be fought with help of US, Pakistan can seek help against terrorism from India…”
With input from ANI
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