india

Updated: May 12, 2019 23:40 IST

Several Opposition parties have taken a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks in a television interview in which he said he gave a go-ahead for the Balakot air strike despite inclement weather because a cloud cover would have helped Indian Air Force jets avoid Pakistan’s radars.

As a section of Twitter users trolled the PM, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury complained to the Election Commission that Modi violated the poll code by divulging the details of a sensitive mission. In the PM’s defence, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union minister Prakash Javadekar said, “PM Modi did not reveal anything (about the Balakot strike) he was not supposed to reveal.”

In the interview aired on Saturday, Modi said, “The weather suddenly turned bad. There were showers...There was a thought that the day of the strike should be changed. However, I suggested that the clouds could actually help our planes escape the radars.” Modi added that he is not someone with the “knowledge of science in such matters” but that he used his “raw vision”.

The February 26 operation against a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp operation was India’s response to the February 14 suicide bombing, claimed by the JeM, targeting a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, where at least 40 security men were killed. The bombing and New Delhi’s retaliation took the two countries on the brink of a war, and figured prominently in the election narrative. So much so that the poll body directed parties to exercise caution while making any reference to the armed forces in their campaigns.

After Modi’s interview, the CPI(M)’s Yechury alleged that the PM’s statements were a deliberate violation of the guidelines. He also requested the poll watchdog to act against the PM.

In response to a tweet by the BJP on Modi’s comment, the Congress posted, “Jumla hi fekta raha paanch saal ki sarkar mein, Socha tha cloudy hai mausam, Nahi aaunga radar mein (He used rhetoric during his five-year tenure hoping cloudy weather would keep him out of radar).” Congress social media head Divya Spandana said, “...Narendra Modi the radar to detect planes, cloud or no cloud has been there for decades. Even for the stealth ones. If not, other the country’s planes would be crisscrossing the skies firing away at will... .”

Ridiculing the PM, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah posted, “Pakistani radar doesn’t penetrate clouds. This is an important piece of tactical information that will be critical when planning future air strikes.”

(With agency inputs)