 "Akhilesh Yadav")
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday supported Rahul Gandhi's earlier remarks, accusing the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, for 'dalali' or brokering of the lives of Indian soldiers through state-sponsored bloodshed.
Simultaneously, the Samajwadi Party (SP) also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over "politicising" last month's surgical strikes by the armed forces across the Line of Control.
"If he (Gandhi) has said that, he must have said it after due thinking... he must have his reasons," Akhilesh Yadav while replying to a series of media queries on Gandhi's remark.
"I visited some of the martyrs' houses. It is the poor who are dying. What do they know about surgical strikes," he said, adding that he shares cordial relations with Gandhi.
Addressing a rally last week, Gandhi had accused Modi of taking political mileage from the surgical strikes, saying the Prime Minister was seeking to "profiteer" from the blood shed by Indian soldiers.
Observing that Gandhi's "choice of words could have been better", SP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia stressed upon the "message" that Gandhi's remarks carried and accused BJP of politicising the strikes.
Making further clarifications, Bhatia said that all politcal parties, including SP, supported the Prime Minister's decision to conduct the strike and will do the same in future, but the politicisation of the same, in the aftermath of the stirkes, is unfortunate.
"But what is most unfortunate is the way BJP leaders have politicised the strikes and indulged in chest thumping, especially in poll-bound UP," he said while referring to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's recent visit to Agra, where he lauded the surgical strikes,"he said.
"It is because of this chest thumping that the Prime Minister had to warn his party leaders. Hope they will listen to him," added Bhatia.
The BJP, however, termed Akhilesh Yadav's defence of Gandhi as unfortunate.
"The comments reflect the typical partisan biased mindset of Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party, which is motivated by caste, creed, religion and electoral and political motivations. Its unfortunate. [P]olitical parties should refrain from indulging in politics over the armed forces. I think he (Yadav) should desist from defending such comments," said BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi.
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