Cong had option to attack LeT HQ post 26/11, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi chose inaction: BJP

New Delhi, May 29 (IANS) The BJP on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Congress party, accusing it of compromising on the issue of nation’s security from time to time, including the 26/11 terror attack when the then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had demanded action, but Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did not grant permission.

The BJP’s national spokesperson, Pradeep Bhandari, in a post on X, said Congress had the option to attack the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) headquarters in Muridke, Pakistan, after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, but did not do it because Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did not favour it.

He shared excerpts from a book, ‘Choices: Inside The Making Of India’s Foreign Policy’, written by former foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon, to substantiate his claims.

Menon says in the book that during and after the attack, a series of informal discussions and meetings in the government took place that considered responses. The then national security adviser, M.K. Narayanan, organised the review of the military and other kinetic options with the political leadership, and the military chiefs outlined their views to the prime minister.

Menon says in his book that the then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee also favoured a retaliatory action. “As foreign secretary, I saw my task as one of assessing the external and other implications and urged both External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that we should retaliate, and be seen to retaliate, to deter further attacks, for reasons of international credibility and to assuage public sentiment. For me, Pakistan had crossed a line, and that action demanded more than a standard response. My preference was for overt action against LeT headquarters in Muridke or the LeT camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and covert action against their sponsors, the ISI. Mukherjee seemed to agree with me and spoke publicly of all our options being open.”

Calling it a betrayal of the nation, Bhandari writes in the post, “Despite Pranab Mukherjee’s insistence, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s UPA chose inaction — a stunning betrayal of national sentiment.”

The BJP leader gave a series of instances where the then governments and the Congress party appeared to be favouring Pakistan. He said that from Nehru to Rahul, the Gandhi family’s record is one of repeated negligence and compromising on India's sovereignty.

“Gandhi-Vadra family’s legacy is one of serial compromises on India’s national security,” Bhandari said.

The BJP spokesperson said that Indira Gandhi was willing to share nuclear technology with Pakistan -- just two months after India’s first nuclear test, "Smiling Buddha", in 1974.

“Why empower a terror breeding neighbor?” he said.

“Rajiv Gandhi, at a time when China was nuclear and Pakistan was rapidly arming itself, spoke of “nuclear disarmament” — compromising India's deterrence. Jawaharlal Nehru refused India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), blocking our access to critical nuclear material and global collaboration.”

--IANS

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