New Delhi, Dec 01: Congress president Rahul Gandhi claimed on Saturday that three surgical strikes were carried out during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tenure. However, it wasn't publicised as the "Army wanted it to be a secret".
Addressing a gathering at Udaipur in poll-bound Rajasthan, Gandhi said, "It wasn't just PM Narendra Modi who carried out surgical strike against Pakistan in 2016. Did you know that there were three such strikes during Manmohan Singh's tenure? When Army approached Mr Singh and said that we need to retaliate against Pakistan, they also said that the force wants it to be a secret."
Further attacking the prime minister, the Congress president alleged that PM Modi reached into Army's domain and shaped surgical strike into a political asset. "We did what was asked from us. But Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party were fighting an election in Uttar Pradesh then and they were losing it. So, he decided to turn military's possession into a political asset," he said.
Reacting to his statement, BJP chief Amit Shah later said at a public meeting in Jodhpur district that Gandhi was insulting the martyrs of the country. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi took revenge for Army martyrs. Rahul Gandhi is saying that surgical strike was conducted to win Uttar Pradesh election. You insult the martyrs of the country. You could not even show some courage," he said.
Shah said that today Army jawans have developed a sense of pride that their government is standing behind them rock solid.
Gandhi said that PM Modi believes that he knows better than Army and other ministries. "He is convinced that he knows better than the Army what needs to be done in the force. He feels that he knows better than the foreign minister what needs to be done in foreign ministry, better than agriculture minister what needs to be done in agriculture because he has a sense that all knowledge comes out of his brain," the Congress president added.
He also claimed that non-performing assets (NPA) of banks was Rs 2 lakh crore during UPA rule and it rose to Rs 12 lakh crore during the BJP government at the Centre. "The government waived loans of 15 to 20 industrialists. Banking system is concentrated only for them. NPA is not of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, traders, doctors or lawyers," Gandhi said.
On demonetisation and the GST implementations, Gandhi claimed that people have confusion about these. "It was a scam, which opened doors for big companies. Demonetisation and the GST shattered the economy and broke common man's back. It opened doors for big companies," he said, alleging that the BJP government at the centre failed to create job opportunities for the youth.
When asked about data privacy, Gandhi said IT companies have understood that India and China has large data. "Data should remain with people and not crony capitalists. That is our belief," he said.
Claiming that even though India has medical insurance schemes like Ayushman Bharat, it does not have good hospitals, the Congress chief said, "We cannot run the country without pumping money into public health and education sectors."
He said, "India will surpass China if we have the right government for next 15-20 years. Respect those who have skills, India will surpass China." "China has a lead but we have not lost the competition," he said.
Courtesy: www.news18.com
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).