‘Don’t stretch it’: Rajyavardhan Rathore clarifies statements on Dawood Ibrahim and covert ops

Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has denied making certain statements regarding India’s ability to neutralise enemies, Dawood Ibrahim and covert operations in a TV interview. He clarified his stance on Twitter in a series of tweets saying that India Today, which aired the interview, wrongly attributed certain quotes to him. He even uploaded a video of the inteview, writing, “Incorrect version of my statements allegedly on Dawood attributed to me.” [caption id=“attachment_2423696” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. PTI[/caption] The statements in question were made during ‘Seedhi Baat’, an interview with Rahul Kanwal on Aaj Tak and India Today. During the course of the interview he was quoted by the channel as saying , that India was ready to neutralise it’s enemies and that a covert operation against wanted criminals Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan was possible. “Wherever the enemy of India is, he should not think that India is not thinking anything about him,” Rathore was quoted as saying by PTI when it was noted that fugitives like Dawood and Saeed are living peacefully in Pakistan. “We may do it (covert operation) but there will be no publicity before that. After the operation, there may be or there may not be. It depends on whether the government says it should be ‘covert operation’ or a ‘special operation,” However, Rathore has denied them, coming down hard on the channel’s tweets, asking them to ‘cut their losses’ and not ‘stretch it.’ He even retweeted several people, all of whom tweeted that the India Today has misquoted him.

Here’s what Rahul Kanwal, who conducted the interview, had to say about the issue. He posted several tweets, most of which were Rathore’s quotes from the interview and urged people to watch the video before forming a judgement in response to Rathore’s ‘viewers will vouch’.