Claiming a “grave security lapse” had led to the Pathankot terror attack, the Congress on Wednesday asked PM Narendra Modi to fix responsibility.
Claiming a “grave security lapse” had led to the Pathankot terror attack, the Congress on Wednesday asked PM Narendra Modi to fix responsibility. The Congress stressed that “some heads must roll” for the lapses. “They should realise that it has gone wrong and resignations should happen. If there is a lapse, resignations should happen,” said former home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who was asked whether the Congress was demanding the resignation of home minister Rajnath Singh or defence minister Manohar Parrikar in the matter. Mr Shinde claimed the government had totally failed. “It has no system in place to protect the nation,” he said.
AICC chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala, too, demanded that the Prime Minister fix responsibility and take action against the home and defence ministers. “First responsibility is of the Prime Minister as he is the head of government. Then the defence minister and home minister are also responsible as they deal with the matter. The PM should act decisively and not merely talk,” said Mr Surjewala, adding that responsibility should be fixed for negligence. He stressed that there had been a lapse in the nation’s security. He said the PM and the BJP-led government must explain who was responsible for the “grave security lapse” as terrorists managed to reach the IAF’s Pathankot airbase despite an advance intelligence alert and reporting of a prior incident.
The Congress also wondered why the NDA government was “soft on Pakistan” over the Pathankot attack. The party asked why the BJP government was “shying away” from calling the Pathankot airbase attackers “Pakistani terrorists”, more so when they had firearms, explosives, clothes, shoes and logistic support from Pakistan with “handlers located in Pakistan”, as reflected by telephone transcripts.
