Rahul's twitter tirade: Modi's policies created space for terror, BJP hits back

NEW DELHI: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter, questioning his policies and his pursuit of "short-term political gain" that he said "created space for terrorists" and cost India strategically. In a series of tweets, Gandhi imitated the Prime Minister's style of describing his achievements in mathematical equations and said the growing terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir was the fallout of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aligning with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to form government in the state. "Short-term political gain for Modi from the PDP alliance has cost India massively. Modi's personal gain = India's strategic loss + sacrifice of innocent Indian blood." With the hashtag AmarnathTerrorAttack, the Congress leader lashed out at the Prime Minister over the increasing number of terror incidents in Kashmir. "Modi's policies have created the space for terrorists in Kashmir. Grave strategic blow for India," Gandhi said.

Modi’s personal gain= India's strategic loss + sacrifice of innocent Indian blood

— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) July 12, 2017

Modi’s policies have created space for terrorists in Kashmir. Grave strategic blow for India#AmarnathTerrorAttack — Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) July 12, 2017

Hittig back at Rahul Gandhi, the BJP said that the Nehru family was solely responsible for the state's situation. "What personal benefit can anyone draw out of bloodshed, but it only shows an immature mind who does not know the history of his own family. Because, if anybody is singularly responsible for the mess that we are watching in Jammu and Kashmir, it is the Nehru family," Bharatiya Janata Party Spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi told reporters. "Not just from 1947, even after that, whatever has happened in Kashmir, if a person is to be blamed, it is Nehru himself and the policies the Congress followed after him and the 'jehadi' Islamist terrorism which happened in 1990s. I think he would do well to get correct briefing from his staff," Lekhi said. Echoing Lekhi's views, Union Minister Smriti Irani said that challenges around Kashmir were a legacy of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Gandhi's latest salvo against the Prime Minister came two days after seven pilgrims were killed when militants opened fire on a bus carrying Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district. The Congress leader had called the attack a "grave and unacceptable security lapse" for which the Prime Minister needed to "accept responsibility and never allow it to happen again".