Modi stronger on terror is a poll gimmick: Dikshit clarifies remark

Former Delhi chief minister and Congress leader Sheila Dikshit on Thursday claimed that her remarks on Prime Minister Modi's response to terror were twisted. "I have seen some media is twisting my comments made in an interview. Here is what I said - it may seem to some people that Mr Modi is stronger on terror but I think this is a poll gimmick more than anything else..,' tweeted Sheila.

"I also added that national security has always been a concern and Indira ji has been a strong leader," she added. The interviewer Vir Sanghvi also jumped to Dikshit's defence and asked to not take the comments out of context.

"I did the interview in question. She is absolutely right. Let's not take what she said out of context and twist it," he tweeted. Earlier in the day, Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit on Thursday had acknowledged that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "reaction" after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks was "not as strong and determined" as that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Pulwama strike but added that the latter does everything for "politics".

"Manmohan Singh, yes, I agree with you, was not as strong as and as determined as he (Modi) is. But there is also a feeling that he is doing it all for politics," the senior Congress leader said in an interview to Vir Sanghvi for CNN-News18 channel. She was responding when told that after the Indian air strike at Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror camp in Balakot in Pakistan on February 26, Modi would argue that when things like Mumbai attacks happened (in 2008), "we did nothing in return whereas he has offered a strong basket of response."