RSS-trained PM, Parrikar inspired Army for surgical strike: Goa BJP

Panaji, Oct 19:  The BJP in Goa has defended Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for his remarks crediting RSS teachings for the surgical strike in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, with its spokesperson claiming the September 29 strike needed a "director".

"The (Indian) Army has carried out the surgical strike and we appreciate and congratulate it. But for the strike to happen there has to be a director, someone who stands by them," Goa Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Kiran Kandolkar told IANS on Tuesday.

"For the surgical strike, the Army has got inspiration from someone and we feel it's from the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister," Kandolkar said.

"If he (Parrikar) and Modi ji has taken training from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, if they have learned something from the organisation and have used it for carrying out the strike, we do not see anything wrong in it," he said.

While addressing an event at the Nirma University in Ahmedabad, Parrikar on Monday said: "The Prime Minister hails from Mahatma Gandhi's home state and the Defence Minister comes from Goa which never had a 'martial race'. This surgical strike was a different kind of combination. Maybe the RSS teaching was at the core."

Slamming Congress for needlessly targeting Parrikar for his comments, Kandolkar said: "RSS believes that Kashmir is ours, the Congress believes in something else."