Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 6: The BJP on Tuesday ripped into the Congress after the party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that the government had the intelligence input about a possible terror attack in Pahalgam due to which the planned visit of Mr Modi to Kashmir was cancelled three days before the April 22 massacre but it took no steps for the security of the tourists.
Mr Kharge also claimed that the centre at the all-party meeting had admitted the “intelligence failure” and said it should be held accountable for “not reinforcing” security arrangements in Kashmir to protect people. Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, were killed in the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
Mr Kharge cited a newspaper report – he didn’t specify the source – that claimed the government had been warned three days before Lashkar terrorists descended on Baisaran Valley. “I got information that three days before the attack, an intelligence report was sent to Modi Ji, and that is why Modi Ji cancelled his visit to Kashmir…When an intelligence report says that it is not proper to visit there for your security, why did you not inform your security, intelligence, local police and border force to protect people? When you got the information, you cancelled your programme but did not send more forces to protect tourists there,” Mr Kharge alleged.
Addressing the ‘Samvidhan Bachao’ rally in Jharkhand’s capital city of Ranchi, the Congress chief claimed, “During the all-party meeting, you [PM Modi] admitted that there was an intelligence flaw.” “Shouldn’t Centre be accountable for the loss of lives in the Pahalgam attack when it accepted the intelligence failure,” he asked. He announced that the Congress stands behind the Centre for “any action against Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack” as the country was “supreme and beyond party, religion and caste.”
The BJP condemned Mr Kharge’s statement as an attempt to “lower the morale” of the armed forces. The BJP spokesperson Tuhin Sinha the Congress had no proof and said “there is always an element of security lapse” in the build-up to a terror attack. Mr Sinha also stressed Mr Modi’s Kashmir visit had not been cancelled because of any ‘security threat’. “To suggest it was cancelled because of security reasons is in the realm of speculation,” he said.
He also pointed out the government – after the Pahalgam attack, which India has said planned and supported by the Pak deep state – held up its hand and accepted an intel failure. “… The government accepted it in the all-party meeting. Whenever an incident like this takes place, whether the attack in Israel in October 2023 or 9/11 in United States or, for that matter, the assassination of Indira or Rajiv Gandhi, there is always an element of security lapse.”
Security agencies, he said, need to have “hundred per cent success” to prevent attacks but terrorists “need to succeed just once”, indicating the odds will, at some point, be in their favour. “But for Mr Kharge to wake up at a time when we are preparing for unprecedented action (referring to an Indian military response) only shows he is not above petty politics,” he said, referring also to comments by other Congress leaders, including the party’s UP chief chief Ajay Rai.
Former Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also ripped into the Congress, accusing Mr Kharge of doublespeak. “On the one hand he claims to stand with the country… but then he tries to weaken it. His criticism of the Prime Minister over the Pahalgam terror attack is unfortunate.”
The party’s Tamil Nadu spokesperson, CR Kesavan, and its Jharkhand unit boss, Babulal Marandi, also spoke out. Mr Kesavan accused Mr Kharge of having made “treacherous statements similar to a modern-day Mir Jafar, and Mr Marandi lamented the attack on the Prime Minister.
“Mr Kharge’s remarks are unpardonable, indefensible, and cannot be forgiven. Everybody demands an unconditional apology from him…” Mr Kesavan said, also calling on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi to break his “calculated silence” and “condemn these outrageous remarks.”
BJP Andhra Pradesh Vice President Vishnu Vardhan Reddy called Mr Kharge’s comment a “betrayal.” “Even after receiving full details in all-party briefing, they still choose to question our armed forces. At a time when country is speaking in one voice against Pakistan-sponsored terror, Congress is busy parroting enemy narratives. This isn’t opposition—this is betrayal,” Reddy wrote in a post on X.
