The deep fault lines between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the principal opposition party Congress appear to persist even after the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent hostilities with Pakistan. The post-terror attack “bonhomie”, if there was really any, has proved to be too short lived.
Although the Congress had initially extended complete support to the government, the bonhomie did not last long. The two parties remain deeply divided even today. Latest bone of contention is the BJP government having nominated one of the senior Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor in an all party delegation of MPs to visit different countries to put across India’s point of view. The Congress had not recommended his name.
Immediately after the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was in Karnataka, addressed a press conference offering full support to the government for any action that it deemed fit against the perpetrators of the terror attack.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha cut short his US visit and returned to India. The Congress held the meeting of its apex body, the Congress Working Committee, extending full support to the government.
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Congress demanded holding of an all party meeting, which the government convened. However, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also cut short his visit to the Gulf countries and returned back, did not attend this meeting. Earlier the same day, he addressed a public meeting in Bihar.
After India struck the terror camps in nine places in Pakistan, the government convened another all party meeting. The Prime Minister did not attend that meeting either. While the Congress president Kharge reserved his reaction to the Prime Minister’s absence for the second time, he looked visibly upset during an interaction with the reporters after the meeting.
As the nationwide sentiment was uniformly with the government as the hostilities with Pakistan seemed to escalate, the Congress maintained a public posture of not questioning or criticising the government even when there were reports of civilian casualties in Poonch in the retaliatory Pak attack, besides reports of some losses to the military hardware.
The Congress’ discomfiture was becoming visible day-by-day as the ruling party attributed the action/victory to the government, primarily to the Prime Minister Modi’s leadership.
The BJP’s official ‘X’ handle even drew comparisons between the UPA and NDA responses while referring to 26/11 Mumbai attacks when India did not take any retaliatory action during the UPA regime.
Apprehensive of the BJP capitalising on and exploiting the military action against Pakistan the same way it managed to do after the 2019 surgical strikes in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, the Congress stepped out and criticised the “politicisation of the Operation Sindoor”. To extend solidarity with and support to the armed forces the party organised a ‘Jai Hind’ yatra in New Delhi.
The BJP decided to carry out ‘Tiranga Yatras’ across the country in different state capitals. To counter the BJP’s “politicisation of the Operation Sindoor”, the Congress Working Committee has now decided to hold about a dozen ‘Jai Hind’ rallies across the country.
Before the hostilities with Pakistan, the Congress was holding ‘Samvidan Bachao’ (Save Constitution) rallies in different parts of the country. Now the party will convert those rallies into the ‘Jai Hind’ rallies.
The matter did not end here. When the government of India decided to send delegations of all party MPs to different countries, including the five permanent member countries of the United Nations Security Council, it sought names from the Congress, among other parties. The Congress nominated three of its MPs, besides one senior leader who has served as union minister also, to be included in the delegation.
However, to Congress’ utter surprise, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor was already included in the delegation, without the party having recommended his name. He is supposed to lead one of the multiple delegations. The government understandably had also wanted to include another erudite and scholarly Congress MP Manish Tewari also in the delegation. But, the Congress did not nominate him either.
The government had also wanted to include senior Congress leader and former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid and Dr Amar Singh, an MP from Punjab in the delegation. But the Congress did not recommend any of these names.
The confrontation between the BJP and the Congress is likely to “escalate” further. The Congress has already been questioning the Prime Minister over Trump’s claims of having mediated the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. The BJP has maintained a silence on the issue. The Congress has been continuously trying to bring the BJP on the defensive, particularly about the US’ current stand and the circumstances under which the ceasefire was reached.
Till now, the US was supposed and believed to be inclined towards India. After the 9/11 terror attacks, the US had found common ground with India over facing and countering the challenge of terrorism. For the first time in about three decades, a US President has avoided, intentionally or inadvertently, the issue of terrorism and instead has been talking about Kashmir.
The current phase of hostilities between India and Pakistan started after a terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 innocent people were killed after their religious identities were confirmed. Trump has been repeatedly saying that the hostilities were caused due to the long pending Kashmir dispute, which he erroneously claims exists for a thousand years, and not because of the terror attack. Congress has been seeking clarification from the government of India on the issue.
The government of India, without directly referring to Trump’s claims, has asserted that Kashmir remains a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. India has rejected any suggestion of any third party mediation. Besides, the country has reiterated and reaffirmed that it is terrorism sponsored by Pakistan, not Kashmir, which is the problem between the two countries.
Prime Minister Modi has also made it categorically clear that any terror attack that emanates from Pakistan will be met with the same response and India will not be blackmailed with nuclear threats.
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