‘Op Sindoor a shield to hide govt’s failures’: Cong accuses BJP of trying to gain political leverage

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday accused the BJP of trying to take political advantage of Operation Sindoor with its reported plans to distribute vermilion among women across the country and said that the drive was a “shield” to hide the PM Narendra Modi government’s “political and diplomatic failures”.

Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak referred to reports that have claimed the Modi government is preparing to take the success of Operation Sindoor to every household under which ‘sindoor’ will be given to women as a gift from June 9, when the Modi government completes one year of its third term.

“It is a matter of great shame that the Modi government wants to use the vermilion as a shield to hide its political and diplomatic failure. How low will the Modi government stoop to take credit for the valour and bravery of the armed forces?” she asked at a press conference at the party’s headquarters at 24, Akbar Road here.

The BJP has officially not shared any details of its plans for its anniversary celebrations to mark one year of ‘Modi government 3.0’. There was no immediate comment from the ruling party on the Congress’ claims.

“When Narendra Modi was not satisfied with putting up big posters of Operation Sindoor in every district and every corner of the country with his photo on it and by dressing up in army uniform... Now, the BJP has announced that it will go door-to-door and distribute ‘sindoor’,” Nayak claimed.

If the BJP wants to go door-to-door and distribute vermilion, then it should first answer for whom and for what will this ‘government vermilion’ given by strangers be useful, the Congress spokesperson asked.

“Don’t the self-proclaimed ‘contractors of Hinduism’ know that the sindoor (vermilion) in the parting of a Hindu Sanatani married woman’s hair is applied by her husband or she gets it from her in-laws or from a Shakti Peeth/temple as a blessing for good fortune?” Nayak asked.

“How can the BJP-RSS people distribute vermilion among women when terrorists who ruined the married life of the women (in the Pahalgam terror attack) have not been killed yet?” she asked.

“BJP MLA Ranveer Singh Pathania says, ‘The Air Force is useless because they were sleeping when Pakistan was attacking’. All this is happening, but Narendra Modi is silent,” she claimed.