Jaitley says PM didn't question Manmohan Singh, Ansari's commitment

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday issued a clarification of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statements he made against his former counterpart Manmohan Singh during an election campaign in Gujarat.

“The Prime Minister, in his speeches didn't question, nor meant to question the commitment to this nation of either former PM Manmohan Singh or Former VP Hamid Ansari, any such perception is erroneous, we hold these leaders in high esteem, as well as their commitment to India,” Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Modi, during election campaigns in Gujarat, had asked Singh why he did not show the courage to order a surgical strike post the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, despite the readiness of the Army.

The Prime Minister also raised questions at Singh and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s intentions for inviting a former Pakistani high commissioner and other officials from the neighbouring country for a dinner ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections. He accused the Congress leaders of conspiring with Pakistan to influence the assembly polls in the state.

Singh had issued a statement, in response to the accusations, saying, “no one, including Narendra Modi, can question my public service to the country…to gain lost political ground”.

Meanwhile, the Congress, since the beginning of the Winter Session of Parliament, has been demanding an apology from Modi.