The Congress on Wednesday defended Defence Minister A.K. Antony, who is under attack from the opposition for his statement over the killing of Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir, and accused the BJP of playing politics over the issue.
"There is no goof up and no contradiction in his statement," Congress spokesperson P.C. Chacko told reporters after the BJP accused Antony of misleading parliament on the issue and demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make a statement.
Chacko accused the BJP of playing politics over the issue.
"This is happening for the first time. The BJP is using it (Antony's statement in parliament Tuesday) as a political weapon while he was just trying to share information available with parliament," said Chacko.
Chacko added that while the Congress was in opposition during the NDA rule, it did not try to play politics over the Kargil war or the attack on parliament.
He said the BJP, which was accusing the Congress of being soft on terror, had sent its minister to accompany three terrorists to Afghanistan.
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Congress sources said the issue would be settled Thursday when Antony is expected to make another statement on the issue after the army chief, who is in Jammu and Kashmir, submits his report.
Stating that any solution to the India-Pakistan border conflicts can emerge only through "peace and dialogue", the Congress spokesperson said there would be "no compromise on the sovereignty of India".
Parliament was disrupted Wednesday as the BJP demanded that the prime minister make a statement and accused . Antony of having misled both houses on the issue.
As soon as the lower house assembled, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj questioned the government on the differences in the statements made by Antony and the defence ministry on the ambush Tuesday.
"The defence minister gave a statement but we came to know later that the defence ministry also gave a press statement," Swaraj said in the house.
She said that while the defence ministry's statement said the Pakistan army was responsible, the minister gave "a clean chit to it".