Union home minister P. Chidambaram today demanded that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi should apologise to Indian Army for making derogatory remarks about the army in his election speech.
Narendra Modi in his election speech yesterday had remarked that army fed terrorists with "chicken biryani" and allowed them to escape. "Gujarat chief minister is speaking blatant lies about what had happened at Charar-e-Sharif, also known Hazratbal in Kashmir, in 1995", Chidambaram said during an interaction with media persons here in Ahmedabad.
"The fact is that Indian army had cordoned Charar-e-Sharif for about two to three weeks and helped some of the villagers to escape from the village. The shrine was burnt to the ground and terrorists, led by Pakistan-based operator Must Gul, managed to escape after their encounter with army", he said.
"It is unfortunate that we had to lose seven army men. Nobody allowed them to escape. Modi is spreading lies and he should apologise to Indian army for making defamatory remarks about army", he added.
Firing salvo at Modi, Chidambaram also stated that Gujarat CM was trying to portray general elections as state election. "We must talk about national issues, serious issues relating development, social justice and communal harmony", he said.
