Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath asks government to make details of Balakot air strike public

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday demanded that the BJP-led government at the Centre should clear the air over the air strikes carried out by Indian Air Force's fighter jets on Jaish-e-Mohammad's training camp in Pakistan. He added that the government must do this in order to end all "doubts and suspicions" over the operation.

Kamal Nath said that the government must make public all details related to the February 26 aerial strikes. "When the air strike has become a subject of doubts and suspicions (shak-shanka), I think the central government, that has talked so much about it, should make public its details," Nath told reporters.

"There is nothing secret in it. Pakistan knows it as it has been attacked. Is it a secret to anyone? So, its details should be made public like this was what we did, this was the building, camp (that was targeted). Such number of people were killed. What is the problem in making these things public, I can't understand?" the MP Chief Minister said.

He noted that doubts have started cropping up over the IAF air strikes due to reports of certain international agencies and news on social media, PTI reported.  "Today everything is there in GPS and satellite photography," he said.

Kamal Nath also took at the BJP and said, "They are claiming the country was safe under their leadership. This means the country was safe only in the last five years under the leadership of Modiji and unsafe for 70 years before that."

The MP Chief Minister stressed that the Congress has taken several steps in the past to build defence institutions. "I think misleading the nation was not right. Who raised the defence forces? Who set up the Indian Military Academy (IMA), the National Defence Academy (NDA)...Sainik Schools. Were they built by the BJP or Modiji?" he asked.

Kamal Nath mocked the BJP and said that those who are giving lessons on "nationalism" did not do anything in India's independence.