Nirmala Sitharaman says BJP ‘talking about political, politicizing armed forces’
Nirmala Sitharaman.
At an informal interactive session with intellectuals, academicians and young thinkers, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Sunday, clarified that neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor any other Bharatiya Janata Party leader wanted to politicize armed forces.
Sitharaman claimed that the opposition had been constantly coming up with the allegation that armed forces were being politicized and further questioned on how is it wrong to talk about political will giving freedom to the forces to take action as they deem is right.
She said, “Action was taken after Pulwama (terror attack) because we felt the heat from the people saying ‘Is this India? Is this the government we voted for? Are you incapable of taking action?’ … And then the political will, based on sound intelligence information, gives the freedom to the armed forces to take the necessary action as they deemed fit. Is it wrong to say it? That is not politicization of the armed forces.”
The opposition has been accusing the Narendra Modi government and the ruling BJP of politicizing the armed forces for electoral gains. Recently, over 100 military veterans wrote an open letter to President Ram Nath Kovind complaining about the same.
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