NEW DELHI: Echoing sentiments expressed by the Prime Minister over the use of INS Viraat by late Rajiv Gandhi for a family vacation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday said while the “kaamdars” used India’s naval fleet to strike at terror, “naamdars” used them for personal reasons.
“The Kaamdars use India’s naval assets to strike at terror. The Naamdars use them for personal vacations with family and in-laws,” Jaitley said in a tweet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi often uses the word “naamdar” to refer to the members of the Gandhi family, and “kaamdar” for people who work hard for the nation.
Modi, during an election rally on Wednesday, had accused the Gandhi family of using warship INS Viraat as its “personal taxi” for a holiday when Rajiv Gandhi was India’s prime minister between 1984-89.
“Rajiv Gandhi was accompanied by his in-laws (on INS Viraat) who had come from Italy. The question is whether the security of the country was not compromised by taking foreigners onboard a warship,” Modi asked.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.
In a separate tweet, Jaitley said that the Congress party which had blamed DMK for Gandhi’s assassination has now tied up with the regional party in Tamil Nadu during the ongoing general election.
“From December 1990 till May 1991, when Shri Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, the Congress Party-supported Chandra Shekhar government was in power.
“From May 1991 till 2004, the Congress blamed its present ally the DMK for Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. It even withdrew support from the United Front government on this ground. 28 years later, today a desperate Congress has discovered a BJP role,” Jaitley said.
Jaitley’s remark came in response to senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s assertion that the BJP-backed V P Singh government had refused to provide Rajiv Gandhi with additional security and left the former prime minister with one PSO despite credible intelligence inputs and repeated requests. PTI
