BHOPAL: Days after Madhya Pradesh tribal affairs minister Vijay Shah’s remark on Colonel Sofia Qureshi triggered a controversy, state’s deputy CM Jagdish Devda stirred up a row with his alleged comment on the armed forces. Opposition Congress accused Devda of insulting the valour of the forces. The Congress alleged that Devda has said, “The country’s army and soldiers bow in the feet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
The Congress and chairperson of party’s digital and social media platform Supriya Shrinate shared a 0.45-minute video, part of the 1.24-minute viral video Devda, on their ‘X’ accounts on Friday. “When the whole country is bowing in front of the army, BJP leaders are expressing their low thinking about the brave army. BJP and Jagdish Devda should apologise for it, and he should be removed from the cabinet,” Shrinate said, referring to Devda’s speech while inaugurating the training program of civil defence volunteers in Jabalpur.
Devda has hit out at the Congress and sections of the media for presenting his speech in a distorted way. “What I said was that the people of the country bow down at the feet of India’s armed forces for the way the Operation Sindoor was carried out and the manner in which those behind the Pahalgam terror attack were punished,” the Deputy CM told reporters. “Strict action needs to be taken against all those who have distorted my statement,” said Devda, also MP’s finance minister.
Devda said, “Entire country was fuming over the dastardly terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam. The nation was unanimous on avenging the attack. We would like to thank PM Modi. Entire country bows down at the feet of the armed forces and soldiers for the reply given by them.”