New Delhi, Jul 15: The top Congress leadership decided on Tuesday to raise issues, such as the Pahalgam terror attack, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, the restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and rising atrocities against women in the country, during the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament, starting July 21.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi had convened a meeting of the party’s parliamentary strategy group at her 10, Janpath residence here on Tuesday evening.
Top party leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari and others, such as Jairam Ramesh, K Suresh and Manickam Tagore, participated in the meeting.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Tiwari said 26 people were killed in Pahalgam and the INDIA opposition bloc has been demanding a special session of Parliament for a discussion on the April 22 terror attack.
“We want to know where are those terrorists who killed 26 people and widowed our sisters in Pahalgam? Why no action has been taken against them yet?” he asked.
Noting that demanding answers from the government on the Pahalgam attack is their “top priority”, Tiwari alleged that the incident happened as there was no security deployed in the area and there was no quick response team.
He added that when the entire country was demanding action against those behind the attack and when the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor against terror camps in Pakistan, a sudden ceasefire was announced.
“Surely, when awards are to be taken then it is the prime minister. When 26 precious lives have been lost, the prime minister will have to reply on this too,” Tiwari said, when asked if the Congress will seek the prime minister’s reply.
US President Donald Trump has claimed 22 times that he got the ceasefire done, the Congress leader said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not countered Trump’s claims even once.
“The suspenseful silence of Prime Minister Modi on the claims of President Trump 22 times is deafening,” he noted.
“A question that is bothering everyone is, where are those dreaded terrorists? Has the earth engulfed them or the sky? Who is responsible for it?” Tiwari asked.
“Our concern is, why was there an intelligence and security failure in Pahalgam, who is responsible and who is morally responsible and where are those terrorists.
“We are hopeful that the government will allow a discussion on the issues raised by us and on the manner in which the bravery of our brave soldiers was throttled by the untimely ceasefire. We will surely demand answers on why Pahalgam was left unguarded,” the Congress leader said.
