Congress 'concerned' about situation in Jammu & Kashmir, calls policies 'litany of errors'

The Indian National Congress on Tuesday expressed its concern over the situation in Jammu & Kashmir.

The Congress said, "We are extremely concerned about the situation in Jammu & Kashmir. Our hearts and minds are with those brave soldiers, their families who have been martyred in these very dastardly and cowardly terror attacks. We do hope that those people who have suffered injuries in this attack are provided the best medical treatment and they are able to recover at the earliest."

It further said making a jibe at the present Government, "However, it would be extremely inappropriate if we do not underscore that there have been 206 major terror attacks in the past 45 months. In the past 44 days since 2018 has commenced, there have been 160 major ceasefire violations along the line of control and the international border. Since the beginning of the
term of this Government, the number of ceasefire violations along the line of control and the international border stand at close to 2,474. At a point in time when our brave soldiers are combating the depredations of the terrorists, the ally of the BJP - the PDP with whom they are running a Government has come out with a statement that we should talk to Pakistan."

Raising the issue of National Security, it said, "We would like to ask the BJP at the national level because this has very profound national security implications that where do they stand on the statement of the CM of J&K that we should be talking to Pakistan. It is a very disturbing situation which has evolved in J&K that on one hand, you have the PDP-BJP Government which files FIR against an army Major."

Saying that the BJP is not genuinely concerned regarding the issue it remarked that the BJP is shedding 'crocodile tears' and "distancing itself from that FIR but the PDP-BJP Government does nothing to withdraw that FIR and the father of the officer has to finally approach the Hon'ble Supreme Court to get an order that no coercive steps would be taken."

Taking on Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the present government's policies on Pakistan the Congress said, "The Defence Minister of India says that we will respond to Pakistan at an appropriate time. We would like to ask this Government. Does it have a policy towards Pakistan? And we repeatedly asked this question from this podium that what is the policy of the NDA-BJP Government towards Pakistan. We do not want to go into the entire background of what transpired between 2014 May and 2018 February - suffice to say that it has been a story of U-turns, flips-flops and summersaults. One day you invite the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the next day you have the Prime Minister of India going to visit Pakistan. In between, there are major terrorist attacks which take place."

"There is an unprecedented invitation to a joint investigating team from Pakistan consisting of the ISI to come and investigate the attack on the Pathankot Air Base. So, therefore, it is been a litany of errors which has characterized the entire approach of this Government qua Pakistan and we would also like to ask the Government in the wake of the attack on the Pathankot Air Base, the Government had set up a Committee under the former Vice Chief of the Army Lt. Genl. Phillip Compose. The Committee gave certain very-very exhaustive recommendations. What happened to those recommendations?" the Congress questioned.

Criticising the present policies of the Modi-led BJP Government the Congress said, "The NDA-BJP Government has come out with a very ingenious formulation that terror and talks cannot go together but that does not preclude us from talking about terror. What we would like to ask them is - that when would the time of talking about terror be over and when would you start acting on terror?"

OneIndia News