Modi acted like PM for the first time: Rahul on surgical strikes

Rahul Gandhi, who has been unrelenting in his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday lauded him for the surgical strikes by the army across the Line of Control, saying it was the "first action" befitting his post in two-and-a-half years.

Days after he slammed Modi's "short-sighted" political alliance with Peoples Democratic Party, saying it has "opened space" for terrorism in Kashmir and apportioned blame to National Democratic Alliance government's "politics" for the Uri attack, the Congress vice president said he and his party stand by the prime minister's decision to carry out surgical strikes.

"When the prime minister acts as the prime minister of the country then I too support him...I want to thank him that in the past two-and-a-half years, this is the first action which can be termed as worthy of prime minister," he said at a road show as part of his Deoria-to-Delhi Kisan yatra in Bulandshahr.

The army on Thursday carried out surgical strikes on seven terror launchpads across the Line of Control and inflicted "significant casualties" on terrorists preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Rahul said, "He (Modi) has my full support and that of the Congress...The entire nation is with him today."

He also paid homage to the jawans, who were prepared to make the supreme sacrifice to safeguard the country. His tribute came against the backdrop of the attack by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad on the army base in Uri in which 19 soldiers were killed.

In the course of the Kisan yatra, Rahul had alleged that Modi's "short-sighted" political alliance with PDP has "opened space" for terrorism in Kashmir.

"I stand by our soldiers and I condemn what has been done to them by Pakistanis. However, space for that has been created by the politics the NDA has practised in Jammu and Kashmir," he had said in Mati (Kanpur Dehat) on September 20, days after the Uri attack.

Rahul had said the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance government had spent nine years fighting terrorism and curbing it.

He had held Pakistan responsible for the Uri attack and apportioned blame to the NDA government's "politics" for it.

Alleging that the NDA had "no strategy" vis-a-vis Kashmir, Rahul had targeted the Prime Minister, saying, "He goes from one event to another and this is no way of handling national security. National security cannot be handled like public meetings. This is a serious matter."

"FYI Modiji: a Kashmir strategy cannot be developed using selfies and sound bites (sic)," he had tweeted.

Targeting the Modi government, Rahul alleged that it is an anti-poor government, which works a few industrialists and has failed to deliver on its promise of creating 2 crore jobs for the youth.

"In the last one-and-a-half years, it waived off loans of Rs 1,10,000 crore of 15 industrialists," he claimed at a "Khat Sabha" in Khurja.

The previous Congress government wrote off 70,000 crore of farmers' loan. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee scheme, which guarantees 100 days of employment in a year to a rural household, was a gift to farmers by the UPA dispensation, he said.