New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on the Congress Tuesday, accusing it of being soft on terror and claiming the Manmohan Singh government would sit quietly after any terrorist attack and just send “dossiers” to Pakistan.
Speaking during a debate in Lok Sabha on Operation Sindoor, he said the country suffered 27 terror attacks between 2005 and 2011, when the Congress-led UPA was in power, in which more than 1,000 people were killed.
“What did you do about it?” he asked the Congress party. “They (Congress) were asking yesterday where the perpetrators of Pahalgam went… Those who were hiding during your tenure are being searched and killed today… At least 100 people have been killed by our forces…This is not Manmohan Singh’s government. We will not sit quietly and send dossiers.”
Shah also took on senior Congress leader and former home minister P. Chidambaram on his remark during an interview that those behind the Pahalgam massacre could be “homegrown terrorists” and that it should not be assumed that they came from Pakistan.
“I was pained yesterday when former home minister P. Chidambaram raised the question that what was the proof that the Pahalgam terrorists came from Pakistan? What is Chidambaram trying to say? Whom does he want to save? What will you gain by saving Pakistan?”
Shah said the government has proof that the three Pahalgam attackers were Pakistanis. “Of the three, we have voter ID numbers of the two… The chocolates recovered from them are made in Pakistan… The former home minister of this country is giving a clean chit to Pakistan. If they were not Pakistanis, then Shri Chidambaram is also raising the question as to why Pakistan was attacked… 130 crore people are watching their conspiracy to save Pakistan,” Shah said.
Continuing his attack on the principal opposition party, the home minister said, “Rahul Gandhi should answer why terrorists escaped during the Congress government.”
He also recalled how one morning during breakfast, he saw senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid “crying” on the TV. “He was coming out of Sonia Gandhi’s residence… He said Sonia Gandhi was sobbing at the Batla House incident. She should have cried for Shaheed Mohan Sharma instead of the terrorists of the Batla House.”
Two Indian Mujahideen operatives were killed in the Batla House encounter 19 September 2008 in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar. Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was also killed in the line of duty.
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‘PoK exists only because of Nehru’
Calling Pakistan “a Congress mistake”, Shah also blamed India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the existence of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). “The root of all terrorism is Pakistan. And Pakistan is a Congress mistake. Had they not accepted the Partition, there would have been no Pakistan,” Shah said.
He added that in 1960, it was the Congress that gave 80 percent share of the Indus waters to Pakistan. “In 1972, during the Simla Agreement, they (Congress) forgot about PoK. If they had taken PoK then, we would not have to carry out attacks on (terrorist) camps there now.”
Accusing the Congress of saving terrorists, Shah said the party had opposed the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PoTA) also. “We did not have the majority in the Rajya Sabha. The act could not be passed… Later, it was passed in a joint session… The POTA was against terrorists. Whom did the Congress want to save? They tried to save terrorists for the sake of their vote bank.”
He said that after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government lost power in 2004 and the Manmohan Singh-led UPA came to power, the first thing they did after coming to power was to scrap the POTA. “Whose benefit was this done for?… I want to challenge Rahul Gandhi to tell the House what they did against terror attacks.”
‘Congress love for China’
Shah also questioned what he called the Congress’s “love” for China and held Nehru responsible for India not securing a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council.
Shah referred to a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and China, and attacked the party over Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with the Chinese ambassador to India at a time when Indian soldiers were engaged in a conflict in Doklam with China.
The Congress’s historical blunders impacted India’s global standing, Shah said.
“Today, China is in the UN Security Council, and India is not. Modiji is trying his best to get India to become a part of the UN Security Council. Jawaharlal Nehru’s stand is responsible for this…When our jawans were facing Chinese soldiers in Doklam, Rahul Gandhi was holding a meeting with the Chinese ambassador…This love for China has passed down three generations from Jawaharlal Nehru to Sonia Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi,” he said.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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