Comments
The Congress stepped up its criticism of the BJP-led Centre for “strategic ignorance” and “irresponsible utterances” after the Pulwama terror attack.
The BJP retorted by saying the Opposition is not standing with the country at a time when the entire world is standing with it.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi reiterated his party’s charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was busy shooting a self-promotion film after the attacks.
“Even after three hours of the news of the 40 soldiers being martyred in the Pulwama terror strike, the Prime-time Minister continued with the film shooting,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said he will not respond to such “baseless allegations.”
“On one hand, all countries are standing with India... humanity is standing with us, but some political parties, for their petty politics, are not standing with the country,” Patra told reporters here on Friday.
Asking hard questions
Congress spokesperson and former minister Manish Tewari said asking hard questions strengthens national security.
“The NDA-BJP government needs to understand that asking hard questions does not weaken national security. As the oldest political party in the country, we will continue to ask the hard questions because the nation demands answers from this government. We will not allow jingoistic arrogance to sweep monumental security failures under the carpet.”
Questions PM
Tewari said the Prime Minister should tell the country what was he doing between 3.10 pm and 5.10 pm on the day of the attack. He said Modi addressed a rally over his mobile phone and did not say anything on the Pulwama attack.
How does the BJP get monopoly over nationalism that one of their ministers very arrogantly stated yesterday that the Congress sounds like Pakistan, asked Tewari.
He said either the PM deliberately decided not to pay homage to the martyred soldiers in the rally he addressed, or he was unaware that a terror attack had taken place in Pulwama.
“We are a nuclear State and if there is a breakdown in communication between the Prime Minister and his office, it has very portentous implications. That is why this nation must know from the Prime Minister himself, who otherwise speaks nonstop, 24X7,” Tewari said.
Congress’ proposal
He said the Congress has therefore formed a task force on national security, which will define its own role and parameters. He said the panel will come up with a fresh approach on tackling contentious problems relating to national security.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.