File photo of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
- Amit Shah accused Sonia Gandhi of crying for the terrorists killed in the 2008 Batla House encounter
- Priyanka Gandhi hit back by saying she also cried for Rajiv Gandhi, her husband, whom terrorists assassinated
- In her speech Priyanka Gandhi demanded goverment accountability over intel failures before the Pahalgam attack
Who did Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi cry for? And for whom did she not?
This was the subject of a barbed exchange between opposition leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Home Minister Amit Shah of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The setting - a Lok Sabha debate on the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor, India's military response to a terrorist strike that killed 26 people, most of whom were civilians.
Mr Shah began the exchange Tuesday afternoon by claiming Mrs Gandhi had cried for the terrorists killed in the 2008 Batla House encounter in Delhi. "I remember one morning... I was eating breakfast and saw (Congress leader) Salman Khurshid crying on TV. He had come out of Sonia Gandhi's residence and said she had been sobbing over the Batla House incident."
"She should have cried for Mohan Sharma (a senior police officer killed by the terrorists) ..."
Mr Shah's attack underlined the BJP's strategy during this debate - to attack the Congress over its track record of responding to terror attacks when the party-led UPA was in power.
In an earlier section of his speech today Amit Shah also ripped into another senior Congress leader - P Chidambaram - for having asked for proof the terrorists behind the Pahalgam attack were from Pakistan. Mr Chidambaram suggested they may have been "homegrown".
READ | "What Will He Get By Saving Pak?" Amit Shah Slams P Chidambaram
Mr Shah criticised Mr Chidambaram for trying to 'save Pakistan' and declared, "When he says this, it means they (the Congress) are giving a clean chit (to Pak)."
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra - who spoke after DMK MP K Kanimozhi delivered a history-shrouded warning to the BJP before next year's Tamil Nadu election - launched a scathing counterattack, accusing the BJP of intelligence and security failures that compounded the Pahalgam attack.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi delivered a powerful speech for the opposition.
On Mr Shah's jab at her mother, she said, "Meri maa ke aansu tab gire jab unke pati ko aatankvadiyo ne shaheed kiya (My mother wept when her husband (former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi) was martyred by terrorists)," she thundered.
READ | "Why Wasn't Security Present In Pahalgam," Priyanka Gandhi Asks
She also questioned the intelligence failure that led to the Pahalgam attack, asking and why a popular tourist destination had been left completely unguarded. "The Defence Minister (Rajnath Singh) spoke for an hour... everything was spoken about, from Operation Sindoor to terrorism to national security... but one subject was skipped. How did this attack happen? Why did it happen?" she said.
"Why wasn't a single soldier deployed? Did the government not know 1,000-1,500 people went there daily? There was no security... no first aid. These people went trusting the government..."
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