Several military veterans and social media users slammed the Narendra Modi government’s “insensitivity” and “hypocrisy” for hosting extravagant celebrations at the BJP headquarters in Delhi on a day two army officers and a Jammu and Kashmir police officer were killed in a militant attack.

“The celebrations yesterday at @BJP4India Hqs are heartbreaking when they knew about the sacrifices of our Bravehearts. And how can they call themselves patriots? This is hypocrisy. And not even a single official condemnation by PMO yet. Soldiers are not expendable,” Major Pawan Kumar (retired) posted on X, referring to the felicitation of the Prime Minister for India hosting the G20 summit.

Till Thursday night, Modi had not spoken publicly about the killings of the senior security forces officials. His X handle was flooded with videos of his election rallies in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

A Shaurya Chakra awardee, Maj. Kumar wrote on social media: “When a politician dies, they declare a national mourning. Yesterday we lost a colonel, a major and a police officer and there were celebrations happening in @BJPIndia Hqs. This is disappointing and very disturbing. Are our soldiers the least mortals???”

Colonel Manpreet Singh, the commanding officer of the 19 Rashtriya Rifles; Major Ashish Dhonchak; and Humayun Bhat, deputy superintendent of Jammu and Kashmir police, were killed in the gunfight with terrorists in Anantnag district on Wednesday.

A retired lieutenant general condemned the Modi government’s continued festivities at the party office with the Prime Minister in attendance even when there were heart-wrenching scenes related to the personnel who were killed, young children and their family members.

He drew a parallel with the Pulwama attack when 40 CRPF troops were killed in February 2019. “Even on the day of the Pulwama carnage, Modi was at Jim Corbett National Park for a photo shoot,” the veteran said.

“Modi also went on a safari and participated in filming. On Wednesday, Modi was showered with rose petals and his party was busy doing PR on a day three high-ranking officers had been killed in Kashmir. This was so graceless, and the celebrations were a stark display of insensitivity,” the retired lieutenant general added.

A retired colonel said the celebrations at the BJP headquarters, in the presence of the Prime Minister, were nothing but a display of “disgusting hypocrisy by the so-called nationalist government”.

“It is beyond comprehension that they chose not to postpone the celebrations even after the death of three soldiers in a terrorist attack. This was a brazen display of insensitivity by the government, which uses the army as a tool for politics and always uses it as cannon fodder in electoral discourse,” he said.

He recalled how Modi had capped the campaigning for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by asking first-time voters to dedicate their votes to the soldiers involved in the Balakot airstrike and the jawans killed in Pulwama.

A social media user, Megha Sharma, wrote on X: “This is saddening. Celebrations on a day when 3 soldiers have fallen and an encounter is on, threatening the lives of many other soldiers. Country is livid and PM is celebrating. Could this not have waited???”