NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of betraying the people of Ladakh and slammed his government over the killing of an ex-serviceman during protests in police firing in the union territory last week.
The Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, who is on a four-nation tour of South America, posted on X a video of Tsewang Tharchin’s father and said, “Father in the army, son in the army – patriotism runs in their blood.
Tharchin was among those killed in Ladakh on Wednesday and was a Kargil war veteran. His father is also a former army veteran.
Training his guns at the BJP, Rahul Gandhi said, “Yet the BJP government shot and killed this brave son of the nation, simply because he stood up for Ladakh and his rights.”
The Gandhi scion asserted that Tharchin’s father pain-filled eyes ask one question, “is this the reward for serving the nation today”.
“We demand that an impartial judicial inquiry be conducted into these killings in Ladakh, and the culprits be given the harshest punishment…”(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji, you have betrayed the people of Ladakh. They are demanding their rights. Communicate with them – stop the politics of violence and fear,” the former Congress president added.
Even Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge Ina post on X said described the sorrow of Ladakh as sorrow of the entire country and questioned the clean chit to China by Modi in 2020 after Galwan valley clash.
Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said, “Ladakh’s sorrow is the sorrow of the entire nation. Martyr (Tsewang Tharchin) fulfilled his duty towards Mother India in the Kargil War…What did he get in return? A bullet from the Modi government in Ladakh.”
He highlighted that the father was also in the army, the son was also in the army.
Hitting back at the NDA.government at the Centre over clean chit to China in 2020, he said, “When our 20 brave soldiers sacrificed their lives for the country at the LAC in Ladakh in Galwan, Modi Ji himself gave China a clean chit.
“If he didn’t remember the valor of our brave soldiers then, what chance is there now?” Kharge said.
“Those who can give China a clean chit, what respect will they show for the martyrdom of brave soldiers like our Tsewang Tarchin,” he wondered.
On September 24, four people were killed in police firing and scores of others were injured when a protest for statehood for Ladakh turned violent. Protesters had also set a local BJP office on fire and allegedly pelted police and CRPF with stones.
On September 26, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was detained under the National Security Act on Friday and subsequently lodged in Jodhpur jail in Rajasthan.
