- PM Modi said the then Congress-led government had succumbed to international pressure
- Chidambaram had said the government decided to exercise restraint after global pressure not to start a war
- The PM said his government puts the security of the country and its people first
Training his guns on the Congress, using former Union minister P Chidambaram's remarks as ammunition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the opposition party had succumbed to international pressure in deciding not to take retaliatory action against Pakistan after the 26/11 attacks.
In a recent interview, Chidambaram, who took over as India's Home minister after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, said he was inclined towards retaliating against Pakistan but the government decided to exercise restraint after global pressure not to start a war.
The Congress leader said then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had also travelled to New Delhi to meet him and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged India not to take military action.
Referring to Chidambaram's remarks - without naming him - during the inauguration of the Navi Mumbai International Airport on Wednesday, PM Modi said Mumbai, which is India's economic capital, was targeted in 2008, but the Congress-led government gave out a message of weakness and of kneeling in front of terrorism.
"A senior Congress leader, who has also served as India's Home minister, claimed recently that India's armed forces were ready to attack Pakistan after 26/11. The country also wanted the same thing, but if the Congress leader is to be believed, the government stopped the forces from attacking Pakistan because of pressure from another country," the PM said.
"Congress will have to answer who took this decision under international pressure. The Congress' weakness emboldened terrorists and weakened India's security, and India has paid the price for this repeatedly in the form of lives lost," he added.
Emphasising that his government put the security of the country and its people first, PM Modi said the India of today believes in giving a fitting response and attacking Pakistan on its turf ('ghar me ghuske maarta hai').
Citing Operation Sindoor - which was India's response to the Pahalgam terror attack in April and involved targeting terror infrastructure like the headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke and Jaish-e-Mohammed in Bahawalpur - the PM said the world has understood this about the country now.
