BJP condemns Harish Rawat remarks on PM's security breach

We condemn Harish Rawats remark that a delay of half an hour would not have led to an explosion, state BJP president Madan Kaushik told a press conference here.He said Rawat has been the Punjab Congress in-charge and played a key role in Charanjit Singh Channis appointment as the chief minister of the state.

The Uttarakhand BJP Friday slammed Congress leader Harish Rawat's remark on the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Punjab visit, saying the former chief minister should also be brought under the ambit of the probe into the incident. ''We condemn Harish Rawat's remark that a delay of half an hour would not have led to an explosion,'' state BJP president Madan Kaushik told a press conference here.

He said Rawat has been the Punjab Congress in-charge and played a key role in Charanjit Singh Channi's appointment as the chief minister of the state. ''Making a remark like that makes his role suspect. He should also be brought within the ambit of the high level probe into the PM's security breach,'' Kaushik said.

Kaushik said Rawat's remark is an open warning that such incidents could take place in coming days in other Congress-ruled states too.

Rawat had said, ''The SPG and other security agencies together with the state police should have properly sanitised the route of the Prime Minister's motorcade. Delay of half an hour would not have led to an explosion.'' Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also condemned Rawat for his remark, saying he did not expect this kind of statement from a senior leader who is already in his 70s.

Meanwhile, a BJP delegation led by Kaushik met Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Gurmit Singh and handed over to him a memorandum addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind demanding a high level probe into the PM's security breach. They said the incident in Punjab was a result of a ''conspiracy hatched out of political hostility''.