Samikhsya Bureau
Watching a few debates in the national television, it gives the impression that the Pulwama attack has raised some pertinent questions that either the Bharatiya Janata Party or the prime minister’s office has to answer. Not that any time someone raising such questions or alluding to the Prime Minister in any manner should be construed as against the nation or national security.
One could see the fumble in the tone of a senior National Democratic Alliance leader on Wednesday in a national Hindi channel when confronted by the Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi on the above issue as what the PM was doing two hours post the Pulwama attack. The NDA minister was heard parroting what the Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said earlier to defend the PM’s absence at that time by an one liner: “The Prime Minister was in an official programme.”
This has added to the armory of the opposition, mainly the Congress, which has come out hammer and tongue to dub the excuses purported by the BJP leaders as a pack of ‘”jingoistic arrogance” and the question may haunt the NDA for some more time.
In a fresh attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Pulwama terror attack, the Congress on Friday accused Modi of being ‘insensitive’ and ‘incompetent’ as he continued his photo shoot just after the terror attack and addressed a rally without mentioning the incident.
Addressing media persons at All India Congress Committee headquarters, party spokesperson and former Union minister Manish Tiwari alleged that the ruling party is trying to silence the opposition, when they are asking questions.
“Trying to package jingoism to subterfuge their own national security failures, trying to label those asking hard questions as sympathisers of Pakistan will not make us let them get away without answering our questions,” said Tewari, referring to the allegation by Prasad that the Congress was talking on the lines of Pakistan.
“The NDA-BJP govt needs to understand that asking the hard questions and expressing solidarity with the nation in an hour of national tragedy are not mutually exclusive. Asking hard questions strengthens the national security,” the Congress leader said.
Tewari, while showing a video clip telecast by the DD News about Prime Minister Modi addressing a rally though mobile phone at 5.10 pm on the day of Pulwama terror attack happened, said, Modi did not mention a word about the attack.
“Was it that between 3:10 pm and 5:10 pm the Prime Minister of India was unaware that a terror attack had taken place in Pulwama? If that is the case, what does it speak about command and control systems in the highest echelons of the Indian state?” he said.
The Congress leader further said that the Pulwama attack took place at 3:10 pm in the afternoon, and if Modi was informed, what was he doing between 3:10 pm and 5:10 pm? The Prime Minister continued his photo shoot as ‘Commander Corbett’. There can be no greater insensitivity than this,” he alleged.
Tewari said if there was a breakdown between Modi and his office, then there is no greater incompetence than this. “We are a nuclear state. And if there is a breakdown in communication between the Prime Minister and his office, it has very dangerous implications. That is why this nation must know from the mouth of Prime Minister, what was he doing between 3:10 pm and 5:10 pm?” he asked.
Taking on Union water resource minister Nitin Gadkari for his statement that India will stop the flow of eastern rivers to Pakistan, Tewari said, ”Yesterday, Gadkari says that we will stop the flow of all eastern rivers to Pakistan. Somebody needs to ask them, do dams get built in a day? The two projects he alludes to were cleared in 1999 and 2006.”
“As the oldest political party in the country we will continue to ask hard questions because the nation demands answers from this government and we will not allow jingoistic arrogance to sweep monumental security failures under the carpet,” the Congress leader added.
Politics should not claim the center-stage here. Being the highest political executive of the country it is the prerogative of the PM to be anywhere and anytime. But an hour like the one on that day of Pulwama attack merits an extra concern. The ‘official programme’ well could have been cancelled midway even. There was not a big deal. If the nation can be burdened with a couple of crores of rupees for a public meeting by a top political leader, that evening’s schedule on February 14 deserved to be stalled.
(With agency inputs)
