BJP slams Rahul Gandhi's snide hugplomacy fail' remark

New Delhi: On Saturday, minutes after Rahul Gandhi termed the release of Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s release a failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “hugplomacy,” the BJP hit back by calling the Congress scion a “known sympathiser of LeT”, and asking if he had “congratulated” the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attacks yet.

“Rahul Baba, aadatein nahin badalti hain (Rahul Baba, habits don’t change). For once, stand with the country & not with terrorists as is your habit. You are a known sympathiser of LeT. WikiLeaks & Ishtar Jahan case cover-up exposed your links. BTW, have you congratulated your ‘Hafeez Saheb’ on his release yet? @officeofrg,” tweeted G.V.L Narasimha Rap, the party’s national spokesperson.

The BJP also asserted that unlike the UPA, the Modi government has “succeeded in isolating and cornering Pakistan as Terroristan, not just in the region but globally and in all international fora.”

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had on Saturday termed the release of Saeed as a “hugplomacy failure” of PM Modi.

Amid a busy schedule of campaigning in Gujarat, where many feel that the BJP is facing its toughest elections in years, Mr Gandhi tweeted, “Narendrabhai, baat nahin bani (Narendrabhai, it did not work). Terror mastermind is free. President Trump just delinked Pak military funding from LeT. Hugplomacy fail”.

He signed off the tweet with “more hugs urgently needed” and uploaded a news clipping of the US Congress passing a bill delinking Haqqani network from the LeT.

Earlier this month, the US passed a bill that requires Pakistan — if it wants to continue receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in military funding — to work with the Afghan and American forces to destroy the Haqqani network but left out LeT.  

Mr Gandhi’s tweet came a day after Saeed, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba chief, was released from house arrest after Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case.

“Hugplomacy” was a snide reference to Mr Modi’s “bearhug” with US President Donald Trump when the two had met in June this year.

Earlier too Mr Gandhi had taken a similar dig at Mr Modi when the US President had tweeted about developing a “much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders.” The Congress vice-president had then tweeted, “Modi ji quick; looks like President Trump needs another hug.”

After Mr Gandhi’s tweet on “Hugplomacy,” the BJP not only attacked him for being a sympathiser of LeT, but also accused the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government of treating Pakistan as “a victim state and letting it off lightly.”

Along with his tweet, BJP national spokesperson uploaded a news clipping of a whistleblower website reporting Mr Gandhi’s conversation with the then US ambassador.

“Here is proof that Rahul Gandhi is an apologist for LeT and is the architect of ‘Hindu Terror’, ‘Saffron terror’, ‘Hafiz Saheb’, ‘Osamaji’ — terms mouthed by Sushil Kumar Shinde and P. Chidambaram and Digvijay Singh... Was it not on Family’s orders that P. Chidambaram changed affidavits giving a clean chit to LeT operative Ishrat Jahan killed in assassination bid on Narendra Modi... What was Congress’ motive in bailing out LeT, Ishrat, ignoring NSA? Rahul, speak up!” he tweeted.

Mr Rao also accused the Congress leadership of “repeatedly” betraying the country by “pandering to anti-India elements.”

“The manner in which they questioned surgical strikes against the terror launch pads across the LoC and the utterly disgraceful attacks against the Army chief as a ‘street thug’ and Rahul Gandhi joining the groups shouting ‘Bharat ki barbaadi’ slogans are symptomatic of Congress Party’s support for anti-India sentiments,” said the BJP spokesperson. He added that statements of Congress leaders eulogising and praising militant Burhan Wani and their solidarity with separatists clearly “show their sympathies for pro-Pakistan elements.”

“Congress ka Haath, Aatankivadiyon ke Saath” is a more appropriate slogan for the Opposition party,” the BJP leader added.