The statement came a day after a terror strike in the Uri Sector in Kashmir that killed 17 soldiers and left several injured. On Sunday, at the time of incident Parrikar was in Goa addressing party workers ahead of the 2017 polls. He rushed back to Delhi and from there to Srinagar. Addressing media persons, Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said the party will be writing to PM Narendra Modi requesting him to seek a clarification from Parrikar on whether he is serious about his position as Defence Minister or more interested in State politics.
“We will be writing to Prime Minister stating that India cannot afford to have a ‘part-time’ Defence Minister. Pakistan can afford it but not us, national security is of uttermost important,” Kawthankar said.
The Congress leader said that Parrikar needs to be more focused on and offensive towards terrorism and not against BBSM or RSS or Subhash Velingkar. “We would request the Defence Minister to be more focused towards national security and not towards BJP,” Kawthankar said.
The Congress party condemned the terror attack and urged the Union government to take serious steps to avoid such situations in the future.
