Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused then Prime Minster Rajiv Gandhi of using aircraft carrier INS Viraat and its personnel for vacations with his foreign in-laws.
He raked up the issue at a rally here to counter the attackby Congress leaders who say that defence forces have been politicised by theBJP, citing remarks by BJP leaders that “Modi ki sena” had carriedout airstrikes on a terror camp in Pakistan.
“Who has been treating the forces as personal property?…have you ever heard that a family goes on a warship for holiday? This hashappened in our country. The ‘naamdar’ family used INS Viraat as personalproperty. They insulted it,” Modi said.
INS Viraat was withdrawn from its place of deployment andsent to fetch the in-laws of Rajiv Gandhi and taken to an island where nobodywas there to welcome them and all arrangements for them were made by thepersonnel of the aircraft carrier, he alleged.
The holiday continued not for one day but for 10 days duringwhich the warship remained stationed there, Modi added.
The Prime Minister then asked whether presence of”foreigners on the warship did not amount to playing with the security ofthe country. Or was it allowed just because he was Rajiv Gandhi?”
He also raked up the issue of anti-Sikh riots in Delhiduring the Congress rule at the rally held to seek support for BJP candidatesfor the parliament elections in Delhi. Delhi will go for polling on May 12.