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Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday expressed disappointment, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making wrong comments about India’s response to the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
“I quote the words of the Honorable Prime Minister: ….He has said that India was ready to respond after 26/11, but due to pressure from some countries, the then Congress government had stopped the Indian armed forces from attacking Pakistan,” the former home minister said in a post on Twitter.
“There are three parts to the statement and every one of them is wrong, very wrong,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday criticized the Congress party for not taking ‘action’ against Pakistan due to pressure from a foreign country after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The Prime Minister sought answers from the Congress Party on the decision taken at that time.
Chidambaram said on 9 October, “It was disappointing to read that the Honorable Prime Minister of India imagined words and attributed them to me.”
The Prime Minister was referring to Chidambaram’s recent comments, admitting in an interview that the Congress-led UPA government had decided not to retaliate against Pakistan due to intense international pressure after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
PM Modi said in his speech in Navi Mumbai that Congress will have to explain who took this decision under the pressure of a foreign power.
He said, “The country has every right to know. Congress’s weakness strengthened the terrorists. The country has repeatedly had to pay the price of this mistake with its lives. For us, nothing is more important than national security and the safety of our citizens.”
What did P.Chidambaram say?
The Congress leader has revealed that “revenge came to my mind” but the government decided against military action.
During a recent interview Chidambaram said, “The whole world descended on Delhi to say don’t start a war.” Chidambaram took over as Union Home Minister a few days after the 26/11 terrorist attacks killed 175 people.
The Congress leader admitted, “Condoleezza Rice, who was the US Secretary of State at the time, came to meet me and the Prime Minister two or three days after I took charge. And said, ‘Please do not react’. I said this is a decision that the government will take. Without revealing any official secret, it came to my mind that we should take some retaliatory action.”
What happened in Mumbai on 26/11?
A group of 10 Pakistani terrorists associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba attacked Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Railway Station; Oberoi Trident, Taj Mahal Palace, Leopold Café, Cama Hospital and Nariman House on 26 November 2008, in what later became known as the Mumbai attacks.
Ajmal Kasab, one of the terrorists caught by Mumbai Police, was hanged in 2012.
There are three parts to the statement, and every one of them is wrong, deeply wrong.
PM Modi’s comments in Mumbai assume significance as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has often cited India’s response to the Mumbai attacks as an example of the UPA’s weakness on foreign policy and security issues.
The saffron party often compares the Congress-led government to its own government’s response to terror attacks through surgical strikes and others – in response to the Uri terror attack in 2016, Balakot air strikes in response to the Pulwama terror attack in 2019 and Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack in 2025.
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