"Major Gogoi used his presence of mind to save several soldiers. It is a strategy. I feel he should be awarded Padma Bhushan," said Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping.
He said this in an exclusive conversation with ABP News channel.
Here are excerpts from the interview:
- We have framed the right policies for farmers under PM's leadership: Nitin Gadkari to ABP News.
- I do not agree with Paresh Rawal's tweet on Arundhati Roy. But there are people who also speak against our armed forces: Gadkari
- Modi government doing lot of work in North Eastern states and J&K. This amount of work never happened in last 50 years: Union minister
Interestingly, Major Leetul Gogoi, who had tied a man to a jeep in Kashmir purportedly as a shield against stone pelters, on Tuesday defended his act by saying that he took the step "to save the local people."
"We went to a polling booth to check the security situation, and then some people started pelting stones at us. Then, the stone-pelters hurled petrol bombs at us. I took that step just to save local people," Major Gogoi said
"Man tied to the jeep had led stone pelters. As soon as we tied the man to the jeep, pelting of stones stopped. If I had opened fire, many lives would have been lost. My focus was to protect the polling staff and people," he said.
"With this idea of tying the man to the jeep, I managed to save several lives," he added.