Rajnath takes all parties on board

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 29

As the Army conducted surgical strikes on the launching pads of terror across the Line of Control (LoC), the political leadership of the NDA government today worked as a perfect team with Home Minister Rajnath Singh taking charge for making right vibes on the domestic front.

He chaired an all-party meeting to brief leaders about the operations and also took on board all the non-NDA Chief Ministers, which also included from bordering states, by calling them personally to brief them on the subject.

Singh, while chairing the all-party meeting, briefed the leaders on the situation in the wake of surgical strikes with an aim to dismantle terror launch pads across the LoC. The meeting, which was attended by BJP president Amit Shah, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar among others, was given a detailed presentation on the operation by DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh. 

Among the ministers who were present at the meeting were Manohar Parrikar (Defence), Sushma Swaraj (External Affairs), Arun Jaitley (Finance) and M Venkaiah Naidu (Information and Broadcasting), besides NSA Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary to PM Nripendra Misra and other senior officials of Home, Defence and External Affairs ministries. 

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Naidu said that all parties “supported” the government action. On his part, Azad said, the government briefed “us about the surgical strikes” and “we congratulated the forces for being successful in the operation”. Meanwhile, as part of government’s efforts to reach out to all parties and take them on board, Singh also called up CMs — Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab), Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), K Chandrashekhar Rao (Telangana) and informed them about the strike. He also spoke to former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. 

The BSF on its part issued orders to all its units along the IB in the four states and asked them to be on high alert and bolster their numbers at the posts by bringing in all personnel, who are in the reserve. More to it, in a bid to ensure civilian safety, BSF officials said, the Attari-Wagah Retreat ceremony was not kept open for general public to view from the stands right next to the designated border pillar in Punjab.