BHOPAL: Faced with public embarrassment and attacks by the opposition Congress over controversal remarks by its leaders in Madhya Pradesh about Operation Sindoor and the armed forces, the ruling BJP is planning a special training program for its politicians in the state.
The special program, which is likely to be organised outside Bhopal next month, will focus on training its leaders on speaking in public in a restrained manner.
According to informed sources in the state BJP, all the leaders including MLAs and MPs from Madhya Pradesh will be told at the training program about what to say and what not to, particularly exercising restraint in language and choice of words while speaking publicly.
The program is likely to be held in June outside Bhopal on the banks of the river Narmada, sources claimed.
Confirming the planned camp, state BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal said, “The training program, which will cover a host of issues spanning the party’s ideology and governance to national and international issues, will have senior speakers from within the party and allied organizations addressing and training the lawmakers.”
While an FIR has been lodged against cabinet minister Vijay Shah on the orders of the MP High Court for his May 12 “sister of terrorists” remark on Colonel Sofia Qureshi, the Congress accused the state’s deputy CM Jagdish Devda of saying on Friday that the “Indian Army bows at the feet of PM Narendra Modi.”
Devda, however, has come out with a detailed clarification, saying his comment that the entire nation bowed at the feet of the Indian armed forces for the success of Operation Sindoor has been distorted by the Congress.
Another senior politician -- seven-time Lok Sabha member and former Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste -- also became the principal opposition party’s target over a statement made on Friday.
When questioned by journalists in Dindori district about Operation Sindoor and the controversial remark by MP minister Vijay Shah on Colonel Sofia Qureshi, Kulaste said unfortunately the minister has said something, “but I’ve not seen or heard it.” He added that Operation Sindoor was a matter of pride for the entire nation. However, it was the next line which actually landed him in controversy, as he said, “Pakistan ke jo hamare aatankwadi log hain, unko muhtod jawab diya hai." (Our terrorists from Pakistan have been given a befitting reply).
Sharing the ex-union minister’s video on ‘X’, the MP Congress posted on Saturday, “He (Kulaste) has not only insulted the army by calling the country’s enemy Pakistani terrorists as our terrorists, but also made a fun of the martyrdom of the martyrs. The unbridled and foul-mouthed BJP leaders have now stopped so low that they’ve started calling even the terrorists as their own! This is a direct question to the MP CM and the country’s PM, will both maintain silence on such a leader, or has the statement come with their consent?”
Kulaste, a prominent tribal politician of the BJP in MP, however, clarified on Saturday that his statement has been presented in a distorted manner and the accusations of the Congress are baseless.
On Saturday, a first-time MLA Narendra Prajapati rendered fresh ammo to the Congress.
Addressing the BJP’s Tiranga Yatra being carried out across the country to celebrate Operation Sindoor's success, he said, “Narendra Modiji ke netritya mein ye jo karyakram aayojit ho raha thaa, Pakistan samapt kar diya jaataa, agar United Nations ke dwara humlogon ko ceasefire ka aadesh naa aataa. (Had the United Nations not ordered us for a ceasefire, Pakistan would have been wiped out by the program being organized under PM Modi’s leadership).”
However, when asked by journalists later about the statement, the MLA clarified that he meant to say that “the ceasefire happened due to the mediation of the United States.”
With the Congress attacking the MLA and the party about the statement, he later clarified again, "What I said was due to the wrong information with me from the social media. India doesn’t need anyone’s mediation be it the UN or the US, in dealing with Pakistan."
