India frustrates another 26/11

CONGRESS & PAK SING A DUET

By Amba Charan Vashishth

          What offended the Congress to get provoked to deny the Coast Guard

story of a terror boat emanating from Karachi having blown itself off

by terrorists themselves that it should refuse to believe it and

challenge the government to provide proof? Congress was in no way,

directly or indirectly, involved. Nobody even remotely alluded to any

Congress connection. Then, why did the Congress volunteer to refuse

to believe the Coast Guard and jump to the Pak boat to sing a duet with

Pakistan saying "there is no evidence"? That is baffling.

Congress lost power in 1996. Kargil war happened in 1999.  All through it was Mrs. Sonia Gandhi who called the shots in Congress — and in government when in power — as its president. It is a coincidence that both during Kargil war and the December 31. 2014 boat incident Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

During the Kargil military adventure by Pakistan the Congress then was less supportive and more critic of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government. It launched a political blitzkrieg against the government alleging ‘failure’ to keep a watchful eye on the enemy movements to frustrate such a mischief. It attributed the loss of lives of our valiant soldiers and unnecessary burden on the country's resources to this government lapse. Congress had at that time too attracted the charge of speaking the Pak language.

When ultimately the Government threw out every intruder, dead or live, and got back the last inch of India’s territory, Congress had no words of praise for facilitating  nation’s victory over Pakistan. Congress called it an army victory as if, in its opinion, army is not a part of government but a separate identity. It kept itself away from victory celebrations because for political — and electoral because elections were round the corner — reasons, it did not wish to allow the Vajpayee government to hog the credit.

Courtesy: Nai Duniya

Congress never reconciled to Kargil win. When in 2004 it returned to power, UPA government dispensed with Kargil victory celebrations at government level.

Kargil marked the first and the only decisive victory India scored over Pakistan. Kashmir in 1948 was only a partial success with one-third of the area remaining in illegal occupation of Pakistan.

In 1965 and 1971 war, too, both times India gifted on a platter at the negotiating table to Pakistan what she had won at a great sacrifice of men and material in war. India even handed over back to Pakistan the areas in Kashmir which the brave Indian army had got liberated from aggressor and which rightly and legally belonged to India.

When terrorists struck at Parliament House in 2001, all the terrorists were gunned down by bravehearts who instantly swung into defence of the temple of democracy frustrating all terror plans. Congress, on the contrary, raised the hype of this being   "a monumental security and intelligence failure" of the then NDA government. When Parliament attack culprit Afzal Guru was sentenced to death, it took more than five years for the Congress-led UPA government to take a decision on his mercy petition. The then J&K Congress chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and former NC chief minister Farooq Abdullah struck a duet that Kashmir would be on fire if Guru was hanged. As a mark of protest and in utter frustration caused by undue delay in executing Afzal, the bereaved families of those who sacrificed their life in defence of Parliament House surrendered the medals given to the bravehearts posthumously. Yet, the UPA remained unmoved of their hurt sentiments.

On December 31, 2014 night a boat taking off from Karachi port towards Gujarat was intercepted in the Indian waters about 350 miles from Porbandar by our vigilant Coast Guards. When cornered, they blew themselves and the boat off. Pakistan called the story a concoction. It sought proof. So did the Congress. Accusing the NDA government of sensationalizing the issue its spokesman Ajoy Kumar wanted the NDA government to "come clean on it" (as if it had committed some crime) as there is no evidence. How can you say that a terrorist attack was prevented?" he told reporters. This is exactly what  Pakistan was saying. It attracted BJP retort: "The Congress has time and again spoken in the same language that Pakistan has spoken. Today, we cannot differentiate between a Congress spokesperson and a Pakistani spokesperson."  The BJP national president Amit Shah said he feels "Congress doesn't know whether it would fight elections in Pakistan or India."  

It is also for the first time that a political organization which is neither a party to the dispute nor are there charges against whom has challenged a government agency and sought proof. Pak making such a demand is understandable, but why should the Congress?

In pursuit of its narrow political goals, Congress has ended up refusing to believe the brave Coast Guards whose only interest is to protect and secure the country's waters and coasts.

Comparison here with the stand taken by the ruling and opposition parties in USA during 9/11 stands starkly different. The US was taken by surprise by what happened then. But, strangely, no opposition leader or the media raised the question we in India do — total intelligence failure, alleging police, ambulances etc. not reaching in time and demand government resignation for failure to protect the life and property of its citizens. On the contrary, the whole country stood behind the US President as a rock and both houses of Congress and Senate had only praise on their lips to describe the way the then President Bush handled the situation. Do we in India wish to tell the world that we are more democratic and nationalist than all others?                                  ***  
Also published in UDAY INDIA.