NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP slammed the Congress on Saturday for targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the US and Israel launching military strikes on Iran, calling it an "army of rats" and claiming that it has become the nature of the opposition party to make "negative comments" on every sensitive matter.
The ruling party said the Congress and its leaders must refrain from making "childish statements" amid the prevailing show and have faith in the Modi government.
This came after Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, in a post on X, said, "Two days after Mr Modi celebrated his visit to Israel, Israel and the US have begun their joint assault on Iran. This was fully expected given their military build-up in the last few months.
"Mr Modi nevertheless chose to go to Israel, where he displayed the highest moral cowardice. He declared that India stood with Israel and got himself an award for saying so. This Israel visit was shameful and it is even more so in light of the war that has been launched by two of Mr Modi's 'good friends'."
Congress's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera also targeted the prime minister, saying the military strikes at Iran come barely two days after Modi returned from Israel.
"'Modi's friend', Benjamin Netanyahu, has now launched an attack on 'India's old friend', Iran. This comes barely two days after Modi returned," Khera said in a post on X.
After all the "grandstanding" about stopping the Russia-Ukraine war, why did Modi not use his Israel trip to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Iran, the Congress leader asked, adding, "Or worse still, does he endorse this war?"
Asked about the opposition party's remarks, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said, "The Congress has stooped to 'nangai (extreme brazenness)'. It is an army of rats. It has become the Congress's nature to make negative comments on any sensitive developing story."
He said it is sad that "such kind of a war" has begun.
"This is a strong (BJP-led) government. It will take all the decisions in the interest of Bharat and its people," Bhatia told reporters at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters here.
"If at all the Congress and Rahul Gandhi consider themselves Indian, they must refrain from making any childish comment. They must also have faith in the government," he added.