New Delhi: Congress candidate from North West Delhi Udit Raj has defended fellow partyman Charanjit Singh Channi’s comments, calling the militant attack in Jammu and Kashmir last week a “stunt”.
Raj said that since the 2019 Pulwama attack, when 40 CRPF soldiers lost their lives, anything seemed plausible. Then, too, the Opposition had accused the BJP of exploiting the incident for electoral advantage.
Channi, former chief minister of Punjab, drew parallels between Pulwama and the recent attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) convoy in Poonch and labelled the latter as a “stunt”, aimed at benefiting the BJP. IAF’s Corporal Vikky Pahade lost his life in the terrorist ambush.
Channi, the Congress candidate from Jalandhar, had said: “Yeh stuntbaazi ho rahi hai, hamle nahin ho rahen. Pichhli baar bhi jab election aate hain to aise stunt khele jate hain aur BJP ko jitane ka savindhan taiyar kiya jata hai (This is a stunt, not an attack. Earlier too, such stunts were pulled for electoral gains by the BJP)”. He added that these are “pre-planned attacks”.
While the party leadership has not commented on the matter, Raj stood by his colleague and vehemently refuted criticism that Channi had disrespected India’s soldiers. In an interview to ThePrint, he said: “What’s wrong with it?”
He said that in the case of Pulwama, there was intelligence that CRPF personnel were in danger if they moved by road. “But the home ministry did not clear the file (allowing them to be airlifted). Why didn’t the government do that when they knew?” Raj asked, blaming the deaths of the soldiers on the government’s “failure”. He added that anything was possible “to get the elections done”.
Raj, who left the BJP in 2019 after being denied a ticket, cited former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to stay quiet after the Pulwama attack.
Raj said: “The background is there. Everybody knows about it. This is the background against which Channi has (made the statement).”
Channi, meanwhile, has been on the backfoot after his Sunday comment, clarifying that he respected the martyred “bravehearts and their families”. “I am talking about those who attack and orchestrate it. I criticise them. I did not say anything against the soldiers…. Why are our soldiers attacked? Why doesn’t intelligence stop it?” he said to ANI.
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‘BJP finished reservation’
With the BJP targeting the Congress on the issue of reservation and accusing it of snatching the quota of scheduled castes, tribes and other backward classes “to benefit Muslims”, Raj said the ruling BJP had in effect “diluted reservation”.
“The Prime Minister has finished reservation. The person who diluted the reservation is the one who introduced lateral entry. What does lateral entry mean? It means no reservation. By disinvesting, privatising many entities, it has dented the prospect of employment. Apart from this, there are 30 lakh vacancies in the central government,” Raj said.
He added the Congress has done maximum work towards the upliftment of the SC, ST and OBC people.
Raj underscored that the main issues of these elections in his area were unemployment, inflation and the poor performance of the BJP MPs in Delhi. He also criticised the “neglect” of the constituency by North West’s sitting MP Hans Raj Hans, who is now fighting in Faridkot.
‘Arvinder Singh Lovely’s departure blessing in disguise’
Last Saturday, Arvinder Singh Lovely, who had resigned from the post of Delhi Congress chief in April, joined the BJP along with three other senior Congress leaders.
Raj said Lovely had left in the past too, and his recent departure would not harm the party. “For one month, the DPCC (Delhi Congress) was not cooperating under his (Lovely’s) leadership. So, in a way, it is a blessing in disguise for us,” he said.
Though Raj has been critical of Arvind Kejriwal before, he now believes the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party is beneficial for “protecting democracy and the Constitution”. The Congress is contesting three of the seven Lok Sabha seats in alliance with AAP.
Many Congress leaders, including Lovely, have criticised the alliance with AAP. “We have differences, but we don’t have any differences as far as protecting the democracy and the Constitution,” said Raj.
While the deal with AAP angered senior leaders, Raj’s candidacy, too, faced disquiet in party ranks after being announced last month. As did Kanhaiya Kumar’s from North East Delhi.
Raj, who won the North West Delhi constituency (which is reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate) in 2014, is pitted against BJP’s Yogender Chandolia, the former mayor of erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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