Things have not been falling in place for the Congress party lately. From in-house defections to infighting, Congress has been battling too many odds. Now, Congress veteran leader Sheila Dikshit has said that Former PM Manmohan Singh was not as tough in dealing with terrorism as PM Narendra Modi is.
In an interview to Vir Sanghvi for CNN-News 18, when the Delhi Congress chief was questioned about the criticism from some quarters that the UPA government did nothing in response to the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai in 2008, the Delhi Pradesh Congress chief, as well as three-time CM of Delhi, accepted that “Manmohan Singh was not as strong and determined as Modi perhaps”.
In the biggest admission on UPA’s anti-terror record, Dikshit went on to say that “Yes, I agree Manmohan was not as tough on Pakistan in 2008 as Modi is now”.
However, as a possible afterthought, Dikshit added that there is a feeling that Modi has taken actions against Pakistan only with an eye on politics.
Meanwhile, when Sheila Dikshit was later confronted about her controversial comment, she claimed her comments were taken out of context but didn’t deny that she made comments. She said to ANI, “if something is taken out of context, I can’t say”.
Sheila Dikshit, Congress on her reported comment ‘Manmohan Singh’s response to terror not as strong as Narendra Modi’s: If something is taken out of context, I can’t say. pic.twitter.com/uecycyqdy0
— ANI (@ANI) March 14, 2019
The Manmohan Singh government had decided against a military response to the terror attacks on Mumbai at the end of November 2008. Over 150 people were killed in indiscriminate firing by terrorists at Taj hotel and other places in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
However, under PM Modi’s tenure, the Army conducted surgical strikes across the Line of Control in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in September 2016 after a terror attack in Uri. Similarly, following the Pulwama attack, where 44 CRPF personnel were killed by a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber, the Indian Air Force conducted airstrikes inside Pakistan and targeted terror camps in Balakot, giving Pakistan a befitting reply for nurturing terrorism on its soil.
Perhaps if India had previously too resorted to such fearless retaliations, Pakistan would not have had the audacity to sabotage India as it has been doing on multiple occasions over the past years.
