Congress Asks If Blast Will Be Treated As ‘Act of War’ As per New Doctrine
Pawan Khera questions security lapses, demands accountability and an early Parliament debate on the attack
New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should immediately chair an all-party meeting in the aftermath of the Delhi blast and asked whether the "new normal doctrine" defined by the government following the Pahalgam attack of treating any future terror strike as an "act of war" stands.
Congress' media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, called for fixing of accountability and asserted that someone in the government should take responsibility, recalling that the then home minister Shivraj Patil had resigned following the Mumbai terror attack under the UPA.
"The surprising thing is that after 48 hours, it was the Cabinet that announced that this was a terror attack," Mr Khera said at a press conference here.
“Despite intelligence agencies being there and national security adviser Ajit Doval keeping a close watch, how did 2,900 kg of explosive reach Faridabad?” the Congress leader asked.
"In a car, there was so much explosive near the Red Fort... Who is taking responsibility for this and is accountability being fixed?" questioned Mr Khera.
"We always stood with the government when a terror attack happened and will do so in the future. But it is our duty to ask questions as to whose failure it is and who will take responsibility for it," Mr Khera said, adding, "The Congress demands that an all-party meeting under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister be called immediately."
The Opposition party also demanded that the Winter Session of Parliament, scheduled to start on December 1, be advanced so that there could be a debate on the Delhi blast incident.
Earlier, when the Pahalgam attack took place, the Congress had demanded that the Prime Minister attend the all-party meeting and take all the parties across the political spectrum into confidence.