NEW DELHI: Hitting out at the controversial statement of the former Congreses MP Sandeep Dikshit against the Army chief Bipin Rawat, the BJP on Monday charged the Opposition party for consistently tarnishing the image of established institutions of the country.
Union Minister of state Nirmala Sitharaman expressed shock that the Congress leader could call the Army chief a “Sadak ka goonda (street goon)”.
Dikshit had apologised for his statement.
The Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, while speaking in Bengaluru, also distanced from Dikshit’s statement, saying that the political leaders should not comment on the Army chief.
However, the BJP insisted that the Congress president Sonia Gandhi should apologise for Dikshit’s statement. Sitharaman claimed that there was no sense of apology on the part of Dikshit. Sitharaman reeled out a number of incidents, including the Batla House encounter and consequent visit of the Congress leaders there, besides the “khoon ki dalali” statement of Rahul Gandhi after the September 29 surgical strike on the back of the Uri terror attack to drive home her claim that the Opposition party has consistently been indulging in attack against democratic institutions of the country.