NEW DELHI: India Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the Congress celebrated the release of alleged mastermind behind Mumbai attacks Hafiz Saeed.
PM Modi made this allegation during a campaign speech in Gujarat. He was speaking in Gujarati and his personal Twitter handle tweeted English excerpts of his speech. His allegation comes days after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi termed the release of the LeT chief a “hugplomacy failure” of PM Narendra Modi.
“A Pakistani court released a terrorist and the Congress is celebrating. I was surprised why. And this same Congress refused to believe our own army on surgical strikes and preferred to believe the Chinese ambassador,” said Modi.
There have been no media reports that the Congress celebrated the Hafiz Saeed’s release. Nor have there been any public statements from the Congress indicating such “celebrations”.
The latter part of his quote refers to the fact that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi met with China’s ambassador to India smack bang in the middle of a grave border dispute between India and China at Doklam near the Sikkim border.
“When our soldiers were standing eye-to-eye in Doklam for 70 days, why were you hugging the Chinese ambassador,” the PM said, according to PTI news agency.
Modi also criticised the previous UPA government for its handling of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks allegedly masterminded by Saeed. He didn’t specify what he found objectionable about how the UPA handled it.
“India was attacked on 26/11 and in Uri. You can see how India responded in the wake of both attacks. This explains the difference between their government and ours,” claimed PM Modi at a public meeting in Gujarat’s Bhuj.
On Saturday, Rahul criticised the PM for what he said is a diplomatic failure of the government.
“Narendrabhai, baat nahin bani (Narendrabhai, it did not work). Terror mastermind is free. President Trump just delinked Pak military funding from LeT. Hugplomacy fail,” said Rahul in his Saturday tweet.
