BJP uses Israel-Palestine conflict to attack Congress, but remains silent on Manipur crisis

On Saturday, the BJP had put out a post claiming: 'What Israel is facing today, India suffered between 2004-14'

J.P. Yadav, TT,  New Delhi, 10.10.23  :  The BJP on Monday continued to use the Israel-Palestine conflict to try and score domestic political points, while continuing to sidestep the human tragedy in Manipur.

A fresh post on the party’s official X handle compared the militant attack on Israel to the 2008 Mumbai terror strike and chided the then UPA government for its allegedly meek response.

The tagline “Never forgive, never forget” — used in a post on Saturday after the attacks on Israel — featured in this post too.

“Yesterday, Israel faced a dastardly terror attack, just like Mumbai was targeted 26/11/2008. Israel has declared war and their military has struck back. What did India under a weak kneed Congress do?” Monday’s post said.

“Nothing. It sent dossiers. In fact senior Congress leaders tried to blame Hindu organisations and even absolved Pakistan.”

The post added: “Never forgive, never forget.”

A video with gory images of the 2008 Mumbai attacks was attached to the post. The video also showed pictures of Manmohan Singh — who was Prime Minister when the 2008 attacks happened — and then UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and accused them of “incompetent leadership”.

The party, however, co­ntinues to remain silent ov­er the ethnic violence in BJP-ruled Manipur that is over five months old now. The government and the party have taken no action against chief minister N. Biren Singh despite the strife showing no signs of abating.

On Saturday, the BJP had put out a post claiming: “What Israel is facing today, India suffered between 2004-14.”

The post had added: “Never forgive, never forget….”

Terror attacks and the then UPA government’s “meek response” to Pakistan had been one of the narratives that helped Narendra Modi sweep to power in 2014.

The party still continues to exploit Islamic terrorism as a key electoral weapon, as it did after the 2019 Pulwama attacks, also tom-tomming the 2016 “surgical strikes” and the 2019 Balakot air strikes on Pakistan as an example of its muscular nationalism.

With five states headed for elections later this year, a somewhat cornered BJP appears to have latched on to a conflict in a faraway country to sharpen its domestic electoral campaign.