We are not puppets, government should take us into confidence about its actions: Salman Khurshid

New Delhi [India], July 2 (ANI): Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday said that the government should take the Congress into confidence about its actions concerning national security and the party can make valuable suggestions.
He said the party cannot be treated like a puppet and there should consultations.
He was asked about remarks of Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad that "India can even do a digital strike". Prasad made the remarks at a virtual West Bengal BJP rally days after the government banned 59 apps linked to China.
"We have a clear position that if it is national interest and if it is a matter of confrontation with the neighbour who is becoming hostile towards India's welfare and India's national interest, we will stand by the government. Having said that we are not puppets, we need to be told about the situation, and we have to be persuaded. It has to be discussed with us," he said.
"Now all this business of digital strike, this strike or that strike. This kind of bravado in the public makes no sense. If the strikes are going to help India we will support the strike, if the strikes are meaningless then what is the point of supporting the strike. We are not saying that share the information in public, share it privately. Call the leadership, share this is confidential whatever you want to do," the Congress leader added.
He said the party might have some suggestions to make.
"The government may be able to persuade us easily to continue with the position it has taken and that maybe the best for the country. Frankly, we are not told anything, you can't just pick out any explanation from the air and give it to us and we like puppets have to accept it. That is the problem," he said.
He asked if the data was being collected by apps for months before they were banned on Monday.
"If it is a question of data being used against the interest of India and the data was collected all those months and years.... how come that changes overnight. Is it that the data is given in the last two years or taken in the last two years there was no problem and today there will be a problem? Now we need to be told what is the distinction between these two," Khurshid said.
"At the end of the day, this is not war, thankfully yet. When there is a situation of peace not war despite the disturbance and difficulties we have been facing, we have to take a call. We have to take a call that how far you go on in peacetime and how far you go on wartime," he added.
He said whatever government does should be done sensibly and with responsibility.
Prasad, who is Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, on Thursday said that Indian can even carry out a "digital strike".
"For security and sovereignty of India and for the people's digital security and privacy, we have banned 59 apps, including TikTok. India knows how to look in the eyes of those eyeing our borders and to protect countrymen, India can even do a digital strike," Prasad said in a virtual West Bengal BJP rally.
Asked about cabinet expansion in Madhya Pradesh in which some MLAs who had resigned from Congress became ministers, Khurshid said, "It's good. That's what they went and that's what they were looking for. They have got it now and they will have to prove it. I am convinced that people who have voted and have been betrayed would be very careful about voting a second time," he said. (ANI)