The BJP on Monday accused several key Congress leaders of speaking “the same language” as Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, alleging the neighbouring country was exploiting their comments to defame India.
The fusillade seemed to fracture the across-the-spectrum unity seen at an all-party meeting held after the terror strike, where the Opposition had said it would support “any action” the government took to punish the Pahalgam killers and plotters.
While former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad castigated the Congress leadership at a media briefing on Monday, BJP social media head Amit Malviya launched his broadsides on X.
They targeted former Union minister and Kashmiri politician Saifuddin Soz, Maharashtra MLA Vijay Wadettiwar, Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Tariq Karra and Karnataka minister R.B. Timmapur, among other Congress leaders.
“Is anyone really surprised that Congress and Pakistan are speaking the same language?” Malviya posted along with a collage of pictures and comments made by Congress leaders. The collage was titled: “Congress chooses terror over truth”.
“Saifuddin Soz, a former Union Minister and senior Congress leader, wants India to ignore all evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the Pahalgam massacre and simply accept Pakistan’s word,” Malviya wrote.
“He has most certainly exceeded even the expectations of the Pakistani deep state with such brazen advocacy. Pakistan worship is in the Congress’s blood.”
Malviya was responding to a PTI video in which Soz had stressed the importance of water for the people of Pakistan, appearing to oppose India’s decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.
“If the river water cannot be diverted, the state of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir will be totally submerged,” Soz is purportedly heard saying in the video.
“...If Pakistan takes a stand that they are not involved in the Pahalgam attack, then we should accept Pakistan’s word.”
Prasad too targeted these comments, claiming Islamabad was using them to defame India. He asked why the Congress leadership had not acted against these leaders.
“Do Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have no control over their party? Or did both of them make pro forma comments while allowing others the freedom to speak as they wished?” Prasad said.
He censured MLA Wadettiwar and minister Timmapur for questioning the claim by the families of some of the Pahalgam dead that the terrorists had asked the victims’ religion before shooting them.
“The wives whose husbands were killed by the terrorists are crying and revealing how the terrorists asked their religion, but these Congress leaders are rubbishing it. Shame on them,” Prasad said.
Malviya said: “Congress continues to provide cover fire for terrorists, disregarding the accounts of the victims’ families — including a child who has spoken unequivocally in the media about the religious profiling that preceded their brutal killing."
Malviya was responding to an ANI video that purportedly shows Wadettiwar saying: “They (the government) are saying that terrorists killed people after asking them (about their religion). Do terrorists have time for all this?... Some people say that this did not happen. Terrorists have no caste or religion.”
Timmapur has been quoted in the media as saying: “The perpetrators of the attack in Pahalgam would not have asked the name and the religion of the victims.”
On Karra, Malviya said: “Congress’s J&K Chief, Tariq Ahmed Karra, shockingly claims that Pakistan should not be driven toward devastation any further. He then calls for everyone to ‘keep their cool’ and advocates for dialogue with Pakistan.”
Karra has been reported in the media as clarifying that he had not advocated a dialogue with Pakistan, and had only said that war had brought devastation to both countries.