Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday hit back at the BJP and dismissed their demands for an apology from his party for the questions posed to the government after the Pulwama terror attack, which took place in February last year, in which 40 CPRF personnel were killed.
"I am still trying to figure out what @INCIndia is supposed to apologise for. For expecting the government to keep our soldiers safe? For rallying around the flag rather than politicising a national tragedy? For expressing condolences to the families of our martyrs? #Pulwama," Tharoor tweeted.
On Friday, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had demanded an apology from the Congress for "conspiracy theories" over the Pulwama terror attack. "Pakistan has admitted its hand behind Pulwama terror attack. Now, Congress and others who talked of conspiracy theories must apologise to the country," he said.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also on Friday attacked the Congress and said, "Please ask the saboot gang, who used to seek evidence about Pulwama, Uri and Balakot. They were seeking evidence of sacrifice of our armed forces and today they stand exposed. I would urge them now to maintain restraint."
Their remarks came after Pakistan's Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry told the country's National Assembly on Thursday that "Pulwama was achievement under leadership of Imran Khan" and that "Hindustan ko ghus ke maara hai (we hit India by entering inside)".
Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor on Friday further said that Pakistan's perfidy is not news. However, "Modi government providing honest explanations for these queries would be news indeed," the Thiruvananthapuram MP tweeted along with a newspaper clipping.
The questions posed by Tharoor are:
1. How did explosives weighing over 250kg make their way to the most protected highway in the country?
2. A terror attack of this magnitude requires months of planning. Has the intelligence network so completely broken down that it could issue only routine alerts that were ignored?
3. All civilian vehicles are supposed to be checked. How did a private vehicle driven by a teenage suicide bomber and carrying such a heavy payload infiltrate the CRPF convoy of 78 vehicles without raising any suspicion?
4. How could the terrorists know when and where to strike to wreak such devastation but the security agencies were in the dark?
5. Bad weather is being blamed for the accumulation of vehicles. But was that compelling enough reason to gather over 2,500 troops together and offer a high-risk target?
Besides, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday flayed certain opposition parties for "playing dirty politics" over the Pulwama terror attack and urged all political parties "not to play in the hands of anti-national forces" trying to break the country.
He said that when the entire nation was mourning the death of the brave soldiers in the Pulwama attack, some people indulged in dirty politics for their political gains.
PM Modi said that the "truth" behind the attack had been accepted in Pakistan Parliament.
