Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 29: The opposition leaders including those from the Congress benches launched a scathing attack on the government for leaving the Kashmir valley unguarded to the mercy of terrorists while making “false claims” that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “wiped out” terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir.
Participating in the debate on the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and the consequent “Operation Sindoor” in Parliament on Tuesday, the Congress president and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge attacked the Centre for setting mere “factories of lies” and demanded that accountability be fixed for repeated intelligence failures.
Extending his condolences to the families of those killed in the Pahalgam attack, Mr Kharge said time and again members of the treasury benches in their speeches have tried to deflect attention from the issues at hand. “Our history is a long one. The history of the Congress is a long one. Our contribution to nation-building has been immense. There is not one Public Sector Unit that you have set up. You have only set up factories of lies. Then you talk about HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) and other PSUs that we have created,” Mr Kharge said.
The Congress President said Amit Shah visited Jammu and Kashmir on April 7 and 8 and said the terrorist ecosystem had been crippled under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. “If it was crippled, how was the Pahalgam attack carried out? You keep saying so many things that are so far from the truth. Just three days before the attack, PM Modi cancelled his scheduled visit to J&K… This is an issue I have raised before as well and I have got no answers. Did the Centre suspect that an attack was about to be carried out? If so, why were the tourists and pilgrims not stopped from going?” Mr Kharge asked.
At this point, BJP President and leader of the House JP Nadda intervened and called for some remarks to be expunged. Continuing his attack, the Congress president said he and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, wrote letters demanding a special session of Parliament to discuss the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor, but got no response.
“Our letters seem to end up in the waste bin. They don’t even look at them. This much arrogance is not good. You don’t have time to write a couple of sentences and reply? During the 1962 India-China War, then PM Jawaharlal Nehru had agreed to a special session and said nothing should be hidden from the people. We also asked for the truth to be told in all-party meetings at least. We attended those meetings, where was PM Modi? Why was he not there?” he questioned.
Pointing to the 2016 Uri and Pathankot terrorist attacks, the Pulwama attack in 2019 and Pahalgam this year, Mr Kharge alleged that the government has to admit there have been repeated intelligence failures. “I want to ask the Home Minister, who is responsible for this? If he is responsible, accountability should be fixed… There have been five attacks in Pahalgam alone since the BJP government came to power. Mistakes may have happened, but what did you do to fix them? If the Home Minister is responsible, he should resign. If he is not, the Prime Minister should decide what action needs to be taken,” Mr Kharge said.
“Even the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said there was a security lapse in the Pahalgam terror attack,” Mr Kharge said and, when someone from the treasury benches began shouting, added, “You keep talking about what we have done. Under Indira Gandhi, we split Pakistan into two and ensured Bangladesh got Independence,” he added.
The Congress President said Home Minister Shah has said three terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack have been killed. “But what about the others? Where are they hiding? Why haven’t you been able to find them?” he asked. Stating that the Opposition had extended all possible support to the government in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, Mr Kharge said that did not stop the Centre from attacking the Congress and other parties for electoral gains.
The Congress president also said at least 27 people, including five children, were killed in Pakistani firing during Operation Sindoor and asked why they were not moved to safer places.
Another Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, one of the party general secretaries, also launched a scathing attack on the government questioning the intelligence failure that led to the Pahalgam terror attack and why a popular tourist destination was left completely unguarded.
“The Defence Minister spoke for an hour. Other ruling party MPs spoke too. Everything was spoken about, from Operation Sindoor to terrorism to national security to history. But one subject was skipped. On April 22, 2025, when 26 people were killed in front of their families, how did this attack happen, why did it happen?” she said.
The government, Ms Gandhi said, had been claiming that terrorism had ended in Kashmir and asking people to visit the Valley. “Shubham Dwivedi and his family decided to go to Kashmir. He married 6 months before that. On April 22, the weather was nice at Baisaran Valley. Many tourists reached there. The children were playing on a trampoline, someone was ziplining, someone was having tea and someone was enjoying the scenic beauty. And then four terrorists come from the jungle and kill Shubham in front of his wife. For the next one hour, they identify 25 others and kill them.”
Quoting Shubham’s wife Aishanya, Ms Gandhi said, “I saw my world end. There was not a single security guard. The country and the government had abandoned us there.”
“Why wasn’t a single soldier deployed there? Did the government not know that 1,000-1,500 people go there every day? There was no security, no first aid. These people went there sarkaar bharose (after trusting the government) and the government left them bhagwan bharose (to God’s grace),” the Wayanad MP thundered.
Ms Gandhi asked if the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA are not responsible for Indians’ security. “Two weeks before the attack, the Home Minister went to Kashmir and said terrorism had been defeated. And three months after the attack, the Lieutenant Governor casually says he takes responsibility for the security lapse in Baisaran Valley. And the matter ends there. No one asks any questions.”
The Resistance Front, the terror outfit that claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack, was declared a terrorist organisation three years after it was formed in 2019, Ms Gandhi said. “So the ruling party leaders are saying they knew about all this, but not a single agency got wind of the planning of this heinous attack. Isn’t this a failure of our security agencies? It is a massive failure,” she said.
Drawing a parallel with the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, she said, “The ruling party leaders talked about the 2008 attacks in Mumbai and said the Manmohan Singh government did nothing. They must know that all the terrorists, except one, were gunned down that day. And the one left was hanged in 2012. The Maharashtra Chief Minister resigned, and the country’s Home Minister resigned. There was an accountability towards the people of this country.”
She said Delhi witnessed riots, Manipur burned and the Pahalgam attack took place under Home Minister Amit Shah’s watch. “The country wants to know what happened on April 22. You are busy patting your own back. If our country is attacked, everyone in this House, from any party, will back you. And we are proud of our forces for fighting bravely. But the Prime Minister wants to take the credit for Operation Sindoor. But leadership is not just about taking credit, one has to take responsibility too,” she said.
Referring to the US President Donald Trump announcing the ceasefire between India and Pakistan before the government, the Congress leader said this “is the biggest sign of the irresponsibility of the Prime Minister.” “The Home Minister did not answer why the ceasefire happened when the enemy was at our mercy. He spoke about my mother’s tears. My mother wept when her husband became a martyr in a terrorist act. Today I am standing and speaking about these 26 people because I feel the pain,” she said. The country, she said, does not just want revenge, but also a commitment to everyone’s safety. “It also wants not just the valour of the forces, but the government’s honesty too.”
“This government always tries to evade questions. Its political cowardice is unparalleled. They have no accountability to the people. Everything is PR and politics for them,” she said. “What happened in Pahalgam has hurt everyone. Everyone in this House has security. Wherever we go, security personnel come with us. And on that day, 26 sons, fathers, husbands died. None of them got any security. You can carry out as many operations, but you cannot deny this. You did not protect them.”
Reference about Ms Sonia Gandhi’s tears came after the union home minister Amit Shah attacking the Congress claimed that the former Congress president had “shed tears” for the killing of the terrorists sheltered in Batla House encounter in Delhi in 2008. “I remember one morning… I was eating breakfast and saw (Congress leader) Salman Khurshid crying on TV. He had come out of Sonia Gandhi’s residence and said she had been sobbing over the Batla House incident. “She should have cried for Mohan Sharma (a senior police officer killed by the terrorists) …”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – who spoke after DMK MP K Kanimozhi delivered a history-shrouded warning to the BJP before next year’s Tamil Nadu election – launched a scathing counterattack on Mr Shah’s jab at her mother. “Meri maa ke aansu tab gire jab unke pati ko aatankvadiyo ne shaheed kiya (My mother wept when her husband (former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi) was martyred by terrorists),” she thundered.
Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, said India lost jets during the military conflict with Pakistan after Operation Sindoor since the central government did not show “political will.” He said India attacked Pakistan, but the leadership “asked our pilots not to attack their air defence system. Meaning you tied their hands behind their back,” he said.
“The DGMO of India was told by the GOI to ask for a ceasefire at 1:35 itself. You told the Pakistanis exactly what to do. Imagine, two people are fighting and one hits the other and then says- see I hit you and now do not escalate. So you showed to Pakistan that there is no political will… India showed immediate surrender in 30 minutes. He also said that he told the Pakistanis that we are not going to hit any military infrastructure,” he said.
“India attacked Pakistan and told your pilots not to attack their air defence system. Meaning you tied their hands behind their back. This is why we lost jets. The point is that aircraft were lost because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military and air defence system of Pakistan,” he added.