PM's Ego Not Allowing Him to Meet Demand for 'Shaheed' Status for Slain Paramilitary Jawans: Rahul

New Delhi, Feb 25: Congress President Rahul Gandhi Monday trained his guns on Narendra Modi, alleging that the prime minister's ego is not allowing him to meet his demand for granting "shaheed" (martyr) status to personnel of CRPF and other paramilitary forces killed in action. He, however, hoped that the prime minister would act on the Supreme Court's order for better pay to paramilitary forces personnel.

"We must recognise the sacrifices of our paramilitary forces, like the CRPF & award their martyrs the title of 'Shaheed'. Even if the PM's ego will not allow him to act on my request, I hope he will act on the SC's order for better pay to the Paramilitary," he tweeted. He attached a media report alleging that before the Pulwama terror attack, the Centre had opposed salary hikes to CRPF in the Supreme Court.

Narendra Modi

Meanwhile, ahead of the inauguration of the National War Memorial in Delhi, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal asked Modi what he had done to save the lives of soldiers in the past five years. Sibal said, "We stand by the war memorial. It is for the prime minister to tell us how we save the lives of our security forces." 

The former union minister said memorials are good and one should remember those who gave up their lives for the country. But there should be actions on the ground too, he added. He said that while 19 jawans lost their lives in the Uri terror attack and 40 were killed in Pulwama, and asked how the government plans to prevent such killings.