Exactly a week after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF jawans lost their lives, the Congress on February 21 launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to explain why he continued participating in a documentary film shoot at the Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand even after the terror strike.
The Congress alleged that the government ‘forgot’ to mention Pakistan as the main source of terror in the joint statement that Prime Minister Modi and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman issued on Wednesday.
‘Busy picnicking’
Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said at a press conference, “What is unpardonable is that when the entire nation was stunned by the Pulwama terror attack last Thursday, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi was busy picnicking in Corbett National Park, Ramnagar, Naitnital and was participating in a photo shoot of Discovery Channel. He was staring at gharials [crocodiles] up to 6:30 p.m. Is there any PM in the world like this.”
Releasing a photo that allegedly shows Mr. Modi at Corbett, Mr. Surjewala said, “He [Mr. Modi] had tea and snacks in the Circuit House till 6:45 p.m. Not only this, he was enjoying a boat ride from the Kalagarh dam to Dhikala along with Discovery channel head and the camera crew who were filming Shri Narendra Modi,” Mr. Surjewala said. “While the country was picking up the remains of our soldiers, the Prime Minister was busy with his propaganda and publicity.”
Mr. Surjewala said the government didn’t declare a national mourning because the Prime Minister didn’t want to cancel his public events. The government spent ₹5,000 crore on publicity, he alleged and charged the government with not spending a few lakh rupees on airlifting jawans which could have saved their lives.
“Modiji didn’t announce national mourning so that political rallies and inauguration sprees at the expense of public exchequer by the Prime Minister would not be cancelled. He came an hour late at Delhi airport to offer homage to the Pulwama martyrs as he was busy politicking in Jhansi,” he said.
“Why has PM Modi, the National Security Adviser and the Home Minister not owned responsibility for the unpardornable failure of national security and intelligence apparatus? Why was Jaish-e-Mohammad’s video threat issued 48 hours before the Pulwama attack ignored by the government?,” he said.
