The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday launched scathing attacks on Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and accused the Manmohan Singh government of becoming a "puppet in the hands of foreign powers."
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia quoted at a press conference recent "exposures" by former Union ministers Manish Tewari and P. Chidambaram, saying that the Sonia Gandhi-influenced Congress government refused to take strong measures against Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
“The people of India are asking questions — questions to the Congress Party and to the fake Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi... From foreign soil, Rahul Gandhi levels baseless allegations and tries to malign our great nation. Therefore, from the soil of India, we want to ask questions — to the Congress Party, to Mallikarjun Kharge ji, to Rahul Gandhi ji, and to Sonia Gandhi ji — and demand answers before the people of India,” Bhatia said.
He also claimed, “It is a matter of grave concern that senior Congress leaders like P. Chidambaram, who served as Home Minister under the UPA government, and Manish Tewari, a former UPA minister, have recently made revelations that are shocking and alarming. It shows that a government which was constitutionally responsible for protecting India’s sovereignty had, in fact, become a puppet in the hands of foreign powers.”
Bhatia claimed that Sonia Gandhi controlled Manmohan Singh, while “foreign powers” controlled Sonia.
Echoing the attack, BJP MP Sambit Patra accused Sonia Gandhi of weakening India’s stance against Pakistan and cited former Congress leader Natwar Singh’s autobiography to claim that cabinet positions were allegedly decided after “consultations with America.”
“It was Sonia Gandhi’s dictation that don’t act against Pakistan. She made India bow down and gave shelter to Pakistan,” Patra alleged.
“Natwar Singh wrote in his autobiography that the Sonia Gandhi government used to decide the Indian Cabinet Ministers after consulting America... She believes ‘saugandh mujhe us videsh ki, main desh nahi uthne dungi’,” he added.
Patra also questioned Chidambaram’s recent remarks suggesting international pressure stopped India from retaliating militarily after 26/11.
“Only because the ‘whole world descended on Delhi’, the Congress party decided not to take any action against Pakistan... This decision must have been taken by Sonia Gandhi unlawfully and unconstitutionally, and she must have dictated to Manmohan Singh and then Home Minister Chidambaram,” Patra told ANI.
Earlier, days after the Mumbai attacks, Home Minister at that time P. Chidambaram had stated that he personally was inclined to support a retaliatory attack at first but was deterred by diplomatic pressures, especially from America.
It did occur to me that we must do some act of vengeance. The MEA and the IFS were in effect reaching the same conclusion that we must not physically respond to the situation, but we must use diplomatic options," he said.
He said that then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice herself had gone to New Delhi and appealed to India not to retaliate.
But Chidambaram later explained that his statement had been taken out of context, stating, “In no part of the interview to Megha Prasad’s podcast did I say that ‘US stopped us from retaliating after the 26/11 attack’... These are the perils of talking to the media!”
The 26/11 terrorist attacks, which were conducted by Lashkar-e-Taiba, resulted in the killing of more than 170 people, leaving the nation grieving and igniting decades-old political discussions on India's reaction to terrorism.
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