Congress charges Modi Government with being 'soft' on terror

NEW DELHI: Ahead of NSA-level talks between India and Pakistan, Congress today charged the NDA government with being "soft" on terror and reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his assertion as an opposition leader that talks should not be held with Islamabad in the shadow of gunshots.

Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said signals continue to come forth that the Modi government is "soft" on terror as 11 ceasefire violations have taken place in the first five days of this month and the country has witnessed two blatant terror attacks in the past 10 days.

Alleging that the Modi government had "totally failed" to deal with a "hostile" neighbour, he said the Centre had not succeeded in evolving a well thought-out policy for dealing with Pakistan.

Insisting that the issue of national security was the concern of 125 crore people of India, he said if the Prime Minister wanted he could consult all political parties.

Surjewala's statement came within hours of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi expressing concern over the terror attack on a BSF convoy at Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Days after the Gurdaspur attack, militant attack on a BSF convoy this morning in Udhampur is extremely worrying," Gandhi said in a tweet.

Surjewala said the Udhampur attack was with the aim of hurting Amarnath pilgrims. "It is a deep rooted conspiracy."

The Congress, he said, is forced to wonder what is the Pakistan policy of the Modi government as these terror attacks as also ceasefire violations put a grave question mark on the Ufa joint declaration between India and Pakistan, effectively rendering it useless.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif had agreed during their meeting in the Russian city of Ufa last month that the National Security Advisors would meet to discuss "all issues connected to terrorism".

According to reports, Pakistan has received a proposal from India for a meeting between the National Security Advisors of the two countries on August 23-24.