New Delhi: Opposition members in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday said that the Pahalgam terror attack was the result of a “complete intelligence and security failure” and alleged that the government was evading questions and hiding the truth.
Seeking to corner the government during the debate on the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor, they claimed its foreign policy has “failed”, as no major grouping — including the G20 and BRICS — passed a resolution condemning Pakistan after the incident.
Congress leader KV Venugopal said US President Donald Trump announced India-Pakistan ceasefire before the Indian government, which “is a clear intervention of third party”.
This has never happened in the history of India, the Alappuzha (Kerala) MP said.
Criticising Home Minister Amit Shah’s speech, Venugopal said the minister talked about all the peripheral issues but not about the “security failure”.
The government claimed it was safe to visit Kashmir, but was it not their duty to ensure the security of tourists, he asked, adding that there was no security cover when terrorists killed 26 innocent people in Pahalgam.
Shah’s speech “was incorrect”, Vengopal said on the Home Minister’s statement on the improvement in security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, adding “a state is burning and the home minister is saying that everything is safe”.
“Pahalgam was not an isolated incident. Why did you not put sufficient security measures,” he said, adding the conspirators of the attack are “dividing the country from outside and you are doing this from inside”.
Participating in the discussion, DMK’s A Raja said the government should not blame Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi for everything.
Raja said that none of the big groupings such as the G7, G20 and BRICS passed a resolution condemning Pakistan for this attack.
He blamed “complete intelligence failure and incompetence of administration” for the loss of lives.
“The Pahalgam attack is a classic case of incompetence of the administration,” he said.
Sharing similar views, ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML) said that several questions remain unanswered, like how the terrorists managed to reach the tourist spot.
“What steps have been taken to stop such incidents… Pahalgam was a security failure,” he said, adding, “There was a lapse on your part”.
Independent MP from Baramulla (Jammu and Kashmir) Sheikh Abdul Rashid said that the Pahalgam attack was a blot on humanity.
Rashid said the government’s claim that everything is normal in the valley is confined to social media only. “We are tired of carrying dead bodies,” he said.
He wanted to know how many members from Kashmir were there in the seven multi-party delegation which were sent by the Centre to different countries to convey India’s message of zero tolerance against terrorism in May.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal (SAD) said that responsibility must be fixed as there was a security failure that led to this attack.
“If we can play cricket with Pakistan, why can’t Diljit Dosanjh’s movie be released in India,” she said.
Dosanjh had defended his decision to release ‘Sardaar Ji 3’ in the overseas territories amid controversy over the casting of a Pakistani actor in the movie.
Dimple Yadav (SP) said that there was a security breach that led to the Pahalgam terror attack.
“The government claims that there is a normalcy in Kashmir, then why did this incident happened,” she said, adding the government is fully responsible for the incident.
“Accountability should be fixed,” she said and asked why the US President announced the “ceasefire”.”It was a failure of our foreign policy,” she said.
Yadav demanded that the defence budget should be increased to 3 per cent of GDP from 1.9 per cent at present.
