NewzVille Parliament Desk
Congress president and the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge today held union Home Minister Amit Shah responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack and demanded his resignation. He also questioned the recurring intelligence failures which have led to Pahalgam terror attack.
Speaking during the debate on terror attack and Operation Sindoor in the Rajya Sabha today, Kharge while referring to a series of terror attacks that took place in the last few years, said, “it is clear from all these incidents that there are repeated lapses in the country’s security. The Home Minister is responsible for these incidents, accountability must be fixed, and he should resign from his position”.
He pointed out, the Union Home Minister during his visit to Jammu and Kashmir on April 7 and 8, had claimed that “due to the efforts of the Modi government, the anti-national terror ecosystem has been crippled.”
He said, just three days before the attack, Prime Minister Modi had canceled his scheduled visit to Kashmir. “I had asked about this earlier as well, but I haven’t received an answer to date. Was the government aware of any potential attack in advance?” he reiterated his question to the government, adding, if it was so, why were the tourists allowed to go there.
Referring to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s admission that the Pahalgam terror attack was a security lapse for which he took full responsibility, the Congress president observed, the responsibility should be taken by the union Home Minister and not the Lieutenant Governor. He said, to cover up the Home Minister’s lapse and to shield him, the LG of Jammu and Kashmir had taken the blame upon himself.
Suggesting the lack of seriousness on part of the Prime Minister to address the issue immediately, he said, both he and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wrote letters to PM Modi, urging him to convene a special session of the Parliament on the terror attack.
He said the PM did not even bother to reply to those letters, what to say about convening the special session. “A day will come when your arrogance will be shattered” he told the PM in categorical terms.
Kharge pointed out, the Prime Minister did not even bother to attend the All-Party Meetings convened after the terror attack. “On April 24, the government called an all-party meeting. The entire opposition was present at the meeting, but PM Modi did not attend”, he noted, while adding, as soon as he returned from Saudi Arabia, he went to hold a rally in Bihar. “Is this the seriousness of the PM towards national security?” he asked.
Drawing a parallel with how Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru handled the situation during Chinese aggression in 1962, he said, when the opposition demanded a debate, he (Pandit Nehru) welcomed it and said, let the people of the country know everything.
