Terror increases whenever BJP comes to power: Congress

NEW DELHI: Former Union home minister and senior Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde alleged that terrorist activities in the country had risen whenever BJP came to power at the Centre and blamed it on the previous NDA regime releasing three hardcore terrorists after the hijack of an Indian Airlines aircraft.

“In 1999, when the Indian Airlines plane was hijacked, we had released terrorists from our jails. Masood Azhar was one of them. This emboldened the terrorist organisations like the JeM. They now think that India is weak… Several incidents took place after that, whether it is the attack on the Red Fort, J&K assembly or Parliament. Whenever the BJP comes to power, the terror activities increase,” Shinde said at an AICC press conference.

The main Opposition party is clearly working, post-Pathankot incident, on a plank to try and paint the Modi regime as being “soft on terror”, a charge that the BJP and Modi had used while in Opposition to target the previous UPA government and its Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. At the AICC press conference, party played a short video clipping, replaying many of Modi’s past statements calling for a tit-for-tat action against Pakistan and deploring then UPA ministers for engaging with Pakistan leadership. Shinde also charged the NDA regime with mishandling the terror strike. He raised questions on Modi’s recent Lahore visit to meet Nawaz Sharif.