Congress demands special session of Parliament to discuss security
The Congress stepped up its pressure on the BJP-led NDA government on Monday over its “inappropriate response” to the Uri terror attack
The Congress stepped up its pressure on the BJP-led NDA government on Monday over its “inappropriate response” to the Uri terror attack, demanding a special session of Parliament to discuss the present security situation in the country, and also to declare Pakistan a “terrorist state”.
The main opposition party has sought “considerable scaling down” of the Pakistan high commission in Delhi, withdrawal of most favoured nation (MFN) status to the neighbouring country apart from “near absolute” economic sanctions against Islamabad in response to the Uri attack as demanded by corporate and the non-corporate sector.
“India is looking weak as having failed to deliver meaty blows to Pakistan. Security situation is under serious threat and the nation wants concrete actions against the Pakistan, a rogue state flourishing both under the government and military,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. “Extreme situations demand extreme decisions. An aimless political strategy is not a synonym for strategic restraint.”
Singhvi said the government’s message at Kozhikode, where the BJP held its national council, has delivered “unsatisfactory and somewhat worrisome” response. “The only response we have had from a so-called ‘mazboot sarkar’ are mere statements, rhetoric and jumlas (hollow slogans).”
The party also demanded an immediate decision on Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti’s asylum request. “Why is there delay in considering and finalisng the asylum request of Bugti? If we have reasons not to grant, reject it but otherwise, why keep it hanging?” Singhvi said.
The Congress has consistently asked PM Narendra Modi to fix the accountability for “lapses” that resulted in the death of 18 soldiers in a fidayeen attack at the Uri Brigade headquarters in Kashmir on September 18.
“Political accountability and also administrative accountability of the highest offices have to be also fixed in the context of those responsible for security and for nine days the government is silent on this aspect,” Singhvi said.
He said Modi’s speech demonstrated “strategic ambiguity” and not strategic response. “We do not want this to lead to strategic confusion making India the laughing stock of the world or Pakistan. We find it unreal that one of the biggest responses we could think of was to try and convince our friend Russia not to have joint military exercises with Pakistan and we perhaps failed even in that,” he said.