In a fiery address to the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing debate on Operation Sindoor, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on the Congress party, accusing it of enabling the spread of terrorism in the country through its “vote bank and appeasement politics.”
“Congress has no right to ask the BJP questions about terrorism. The only reason terrorism spread in the country was because of Congress’ votebank and appeasement politics,” Shah declared, drawing sharp reactions from the Opposition benches.
The debate, which began on Tuesday, saw Opposition members staging a walkout demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself reply to the House. However, it was Shah who took the floor on Wednesday to present the government’s strong defence of its counter-terrorism operations, particularly in J&K.
“Today, standing in this House, I promise that J&K will be free from terrorism. This is the resolve of the Narendra Modi government,” Shah said, reaffirming the Centre’s commitment to eliminating terrorism from the Union Territory.
Responding directly to Opposition criticism over the timing of the recent killings of terrorists involved in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, Shah rebuked Congress leaders for politicising national security. “Yesterday, you were asking why they were killed on this day? Why should they not have been killed yesterday? Because Rahul Gandhi was supposed to deliver his speech? It doesn’t work like this. The entire country is seeing that Congress’ priority is not national security and ending terrorism, but politics, their vote bank and appeasement politics,” he charged.
Shah detailed how the security review meeting held after the Pahalgam attack had clearly resolved to capture or neutralise the perpetrators swiftly. “More critically, measures were taken to ensure they could not flee the country. As a result, 100 days after the attack, the perpetrators were located and neutralised,” he said.
Giving specifics of the operation, Shah noted that under Operation Mahadev, three top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed. Among them was Suleiman, who opened fire during the Pahalgam attack and served as a LeT commander. Also eliminated were Hamza Afghani, another senior LeT commander, and Zibran, a known associate of the group. “The evidence unequivocally points to Lashkar-e-Taiba’s involvement in orchestrating the Pahalgam attack,” Shah said.
Shah also linked these killings with Operation Sindoor, India’s retaliatory strike against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). “India carried out Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack and hit terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK. India also repelled subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases,” he informed the House.
Shah said the Modi government had demonstrated not just political will but operational clarity in dealing with terrorism. He reiterated that the era of passive responses to terrorism, which he said characterised the Congress years, was over. “This government will not sit quietly when Indians are killed. We will act, and we have acted,” he said.
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