Modi 'replies' to PM's attack on Advani

A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unleashed his sharpest attack against Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, BJP leader Narendra Modi hit back, accusing Dr Singh of 'kneeling down' and the Congress of displaying 'helplessness' on security issues whenever in power.

"What was the Congress doing during the Indo-China war of 1962? I want to ask the prime minister, who is saying that Advani was wringing his hands, what was the Congress doing with their hands then? Today, thousands and thousands of acres of Indian land is with China," Modi said while addressing a public rally in Balasinor town in Gujarat's Kheada district.

"Even today, half of Kashmir is occupied by Pakistan, what kind of strength does it show? I want to ask if the prime minister is kneeling down due to helplessness of the Congress or is it part of his habit," Modi asked.

The prime minister had on Monday attacked Advani for his 'melting' before terrorists during the Kandahar hijack episode, of 'wringing his hands' during the 2002 Gujarat riots and 'weeping in a corner' when the Babri Mosque was demolished.

Modi also raised the issues of the Charar-e-Sharif seige, the Rubaiyat kidnapping episode and the 26/11 attacks.

"Instead of attacking Pakistan, what they did was make a CD of the TV footage of Mumbai attack, made a file of newspaper cutting, put them in a box and the home minister took it to the United States. There they cried that our neighbour has beaten us, please help us," Modi said, adding, "This is the perfect example of the helplessness of the government."

Modi thanked Dr Singh for starting the debate on 'majboor and majboot' (helpless and strong) prime minister and wished to take it forward.

"Advaniji may not reply on these issues, but I, though I am a small man, only a chief minister of a state, I am giving the reply," Modi said.

"When Indian soldiers captured over 90,000 Pakistani soldiers in Bangladesh, why were they allowed to go free," Modi asked about the 1975 Indo-Pak war.

"If we (BJP) would have been in power at that time, we would have taken half of Kashmir back in exchange of those 90,000 soldiers" Modi said.

"I want to ask the prime minister why the Congress had returned villages, won by our soldiers during the war with Pakistan, on the negotiating table," Modi said.

Modi added, "I allege that under the Narasimha Rao government, when Manmohan Singh was the finance minister, the Congress had given safe passage to five terrorists in Charar-e-Sharif of Kashmir after providing them a feast of 'chicken biryani' for seven days".

The situation was that the army had surrounded the terrorists from all the sides, but the terrorists threatened that they would blow off the shrine if the army tried to capture them, he claimed.

"Manmohan Singh, who was then the finance minister, took out the money from the government treasury. Narasimha Rao government sent that money to Kashmir, where it was used to feed chicken biryani to the terrorists," he alleged.