Slamming the NDA government over the Pahalgam terror attack, Manipur violence and Delhi riots in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra questioned why Home Minister Amit Shah was continuing in his post, and sought to know why no one resigned after the Pahalgam incident.
Taking part in the special discussion on Operation Sindoor in Parliament, Vadra said that ruling-side members repeatedly talked about the 2008 Mumbai attacks and claimed that the Manmohan Singh government did nothing.
“You would be aware that the terrorists were killed during the attack itself and one person left was hanged in 2012. The Maharashtra Chief Minister resigned, and Union Home Minister too resigned, taking responsibility. That was the accountability towards the public and the land of the nation,” the MP said
She added that Rajnath Singh was Home Minister at the time of Pulwama, Uri and Pathankot attacks, and is presently the Defence Minister. “And entire Manipur got burnt under Home Minister Amit Shah’s watch, riots happened in Delhi, attack happened in Pahalgam and he is still occupying his post even today. Why?” Vadra asked.
When the members from Treasury benches spoke about past terror attacks of UPA regimes, Vadra responded, “You talk about history, I want to talk about the present… You want an excuse and you read the name of the entire family. You take responsibility for yourself, you have been in power for 11 years.”
Vadra said that when Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi asked in the House on Monday whether these were not the responsibility of the Home Minister, Defence Minister Rajnath was waving his head, and he must have felt responsible from inside. “But the Home Minister was laughing. He was laughing,” she stated.
Vadra said that the Prime Minister wanted to take credit for Operation Sindoor. “He takes credit for Olympic medals too. But leadership is not just about taking credit, responsibility too has to be taken. It happened for the first time in the history of the country that a war stopped suddenly and it was announced not by our Army but by the US President. This is the biggest example of our Prime Minister’s irresponsibility.”
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Vadra also questioned how and why the attack happened in Pahalgam on April 22. She said that for some time, the government was publicising that terrorism was finished in Kashmir and there was peace, and the Prime Minister, in his speeches, asked people to travel to Kashmir and buy land there.
Vadra mentioned the name of one of the deceased in the attack, Shubham Dwivedi of Kanpur, and quoted his wife as saying that for nearly one hour, when the terrorists were killing tourists, she did not see a single security personnel or a single soldier.
Quoting Shubham’s wife, Vadra said, there was not a single guard there and “desh ne, sarkar ne hame wahan anaath chod diya tha (the country and the government had left us there like orphans)”.
“Why were security and soldiers not there? Was the government not aware that tourists visit there every day and they travel through forests? There was no arrangement for medical facility or first aid. They were left in the responsibility (bharose) of God. They went there trusting this government, and this government left them in the hands of God.
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“I want to ask who was responsible for the security of the country’s citizens. Is it not the Prime Minister?…Home Minister, Defence Minister, NSA?” Vadra added.
The Congress leader said the terror outfit The Resistance Front (TRF) took responsibility for the attack. “Who is TRF? This TRF was formed in 2019. It started terrorist activities in Kashmir in 2020, and from April 2020 to April 22, 2025, they conducted 25 terror attacks… TRF killed 41 security and Army personnel, killed 27 civilians and injured 54 other people. But the Indian government gave TRF the status of terror outfit in 2023, after three years. For three years, they kept doing terrorist activities. What was the reason for the delay? The government was aware of all that,” she said.
Vadra questioned why the government did not have a single agency that could find that such an attack was going to happen and its planning was being done in Pakistan. “Is it the failure of our agencies or not? This is a very big failure. This is an output which killed innocent people and policemen, and you were not keeping a watch on them. Who will take responsibility for these agencies?” she said.
Vadra also asked if the Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief or anyone resigned after the terror attack? “IB comes under the Home Minister. Did the Home Minister resign? Forget resignation, did he take responsibility?”
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If the objective of Operation Sindoor was to teach Pakistan a lesson, then that objective is probably still incomplete because India’s diplomacy has failed, she added.
Vadra said that the current government avoids responding to questions and said it amounted to “rajeneetik kayarta (political cowardice)”.
Before concluding her speech, Vadra read out the names of those killed in the Pahalgam attack. As several members of the Treasury benches said they were Hindus, she responded by saying that they were Indians.
