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Regular-article-logo Friday, 26 June 2026

CONGRESS BLASTS GOVERNMENT WITH NEGLIGENCE BARB 

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FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Published 01.06.99, 12:00 AM
New Delhi, June 1 :    New Delhi, June 1:  Condemning the ?naked aggression? by Pakistan in Kargil, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) today said the Vajpayee government cannot escape the responsibility of adopting an ?astonishingly negligent and complacent approach? which allowed national security to be breached in Jammu and Kashmir. The CWC met today after Sonia Gandhi?s one-to-one meeting with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last evening. Sonia Gandhi had sought the meeting to inform Vajpayee of her party?s point of view. She said while the Congress would fully support the government?s efforts to flush out infiltrators, the Centre must ensure that interests of the nation are placed first so that sacrifices of soldiers do not go in vain. The CWC members unanimously felt that the Vajpayee government should be censured for its diplomatic and strategic failures. Some members said the Congress should be careful in forming its stand on Kargil in view of its sensitiveness. However, others felt the BJP should not be allowed to get away as this would be an election issue. The CWC said it was highly objectionable on the part of BJP to invite senior armed forces officers to brief its national executive. Terming the move ?totally unacceptable?, Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said: ?It is highly objectionable. It has never happened before and should not have happened.? He said if any party wanted to be briefed by any agency of the government, it should have approached the political executive or the minister concerned and the Prime Minister and then initiative should have been taken by the government. The CWC passed a resolution which took strong exception to defence minister George Fernandes? statement giving a clean chit to the Nawaz Sharif government and the ISI in the Kargil infiltration. The resolution said: ?Now the government is engaged in salvaging the tattered remains of its failed diplomacy by exculpating the Pakistani Prime Minister and his government, including the ISI, of their responsibility for recent events. There is no justification to exonerate the Pakistani authorities by the Vajpayee government.? CWC members said it now appeared that no proper intelligence assessment of ground realities was undertaken before Vajpayee?s Lahore bus journey in February. ?Lahore Declaration and related documents were being rendered null and void even as they were being solemnly signed. This reveals a level of inexperience, naivet? and immaturity of the political executive of the day,? the CWC resolution said. The resolution pointed out that the Vajpayee government was admitting now that preparation for the massive infiltration had been going on for months. ?Pakistani agents were trained and positioned. Equipment and artillery to back them, including sophisticated anti-aircraft artillery, were moved to great heights notwithstanding the severity of the weather,? it said. The resolution said the government should have known that once the infiltration routes in the western sector had been effectively blocked, the focus of hostile action would inevitably shift to vulnerable points in the northern Kargil sector. It said Pakistani infiltrators had intruded into the Indian territory by stealth and active connivance of the Pakistani authorities. The CWC meeting, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, lasted for three-hours. Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said the entire time was devoted to Kargil.    
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