Cong questions Centre’s Pak policy
NEWDELHI:The Congress attacked the Centre in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday over the Pulwama terror attack and questioned its Pakistan policy and “inability to protect military installations” from cross border terrorists, despite intelligence inputs.
Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia slammed the government over National Security Adviser Ajit Doval’s “secret” meeting with his Pakistani counterpart in Bangkok last week.
He also accused Prime Minisrer Narendra Modi of being silent on the December 31 attack on a CRPF training camp in which five soldiers were killed and three injured. “What is the government’s Pakistan policy? The NSA met the Pakistani NSA in Bangkok after the family of Kulbhushan Jadhav was ill treated by Pakistan. On the other hand, cross-border attacks are going on,” Scindia said during Zero Hour in the lower house.
Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar countered, saying, “They are playing politics over the attack.” His remarks triggered protests from Congress MPs. “We had carried out the surgical strikes… 200 terrorists were killed last year,” Kumar added.
A Pakistani national security division official was quoted by Dawn newspaper as saying that a meeting between Pakistan NSA (Retd) Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua and Doval took place on December 27 in Thailand.
The Congress leader said despite the recent attacks on military bases in Uri, Udhampur and Pathankot, the government failed to secure “our soldiers.”
“Soldiers are sacrificing their lives protecting the country but the government does not look serious in protecting them,” Scindia said. The party demanded that the BJP apologise for its MP Nepal Singh’s comments on soldiers killed in action. The Rampur MP had said “these things happen” in response to a question on deaths of security personnel in the Pulwama attack.
The Congress also demanded the government spell out the action taken on the measures suggested by a committee headed by Lt Gen Philip Campose (retd) to strengthen security at defence installations.