Close X
Sunday, January 12, 2025
ADVT 
India

Congress, BJP Spar Over Pakistani 'Terror Boat'

Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Jan, 2015 01:18 PM
    The ruling BJP Sunday hit out at the Congress for seeking a probe into the alleged Pakistani "terror boat" incident and said its questioning the matter showed the opposition party had touched a "new low" in politics.
     
    "A new low in Indian politics has been touched, and who has been responsible for this? It's the Congress, the principal opposition party of India. It has touched a new abysmal low as far as politics is concerned," Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters here.
     
    "The Congress has time and again spoken in the same language that Pakistan has spoken. Today, we cannot differentiate between a Congress spokesperson and a Pakistani spokesperson," he said at a press conference.
     
    "Congress has supplied oxygen to Pakistan time and again," he said.
     
    Congress leader Ajoy Kumar, accusing the National Democratic Alliance government of sensationalizing the issue, Sunday said it should come clean on the matter by naming the terror organization involved in the incident as different versions were coming out.
     
    "The government should come clean on it. There is no evidence. How can you say that a terrorist attack was prevented?" he told reporters here.
     
    Congress leader Manish Tewari said that the party did not need lessons on nationalism from the "chaperones of terrorists" and referred to the 1999 Kandahar hijacking incident to say that the BJP leadership had escorted known terrorists to freedom and the party would do well to remember it.
     
    He said his party acknowledged that Pakistan had been waging a "proxy war" against India but said the BJP's reaction was a blow to the bipartisanship required for national security.
     
    "The government needs to put all the facts in the case in the public space," Tewari told Times Now.
     
    Also attacking the Congress, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said there was "nothing new in the Congress speaking the language of terrorists" and accused it of being "soft on terror due to its vote-bank politics".
     
    Patra said if the Congress wanted details about the incident, it could have asked for them but it chose to speak out of turn and raised doubt over a serious national issue.
     
    "The Congress chose not to stand with the Indian government. The Congress chose not to stand with the Indian Coast Guard. The Congress chose not to speak in favour of the Indian intelligence agencies," he said adding that this has helped Pakistan to have "last laugh"
     
    An alleged Pakistani fishing boat was intercepted by the Coast Guard off Gujarat coast when it attempted to escape early Jan 1. The boat sank after its crew allegedly set fire to it and there were no survivors.

    MORE India ARTICLES

    Centre scraps affidavits, Punjab claims credit

    Centre scraps affidavits, Punjab claims credit
    The central government has asked states to do away with affidavits for government-related work and promote self-attestation of documents....

    Centre scraps affidavits, Punjab claims credit

    Indian nurses now caught in conflict in Libya

    Indian nurses now caught in conflict in Libya
    In a near replay of the incidents in Iraq, large numbers of Indian nurses are caught in spiralling violence in Libya, where rival militant groups seek to control the...

    Indian nurses now caught in conflict in Libya

    Modi-Mantra: India needs to increase farm output

    Modi-Mantra: India needs to increase farm output
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday urged agricultural scientists to work towards the twin objective of increasing food productivity and enabling farmers...

    Modi-Mantra: India needs to increase farm output

    Kejriwal moves back to Kaushambi house

    Kejriwal moves back to Kaushambi house
    AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday moved back to his apartment in Kaushambi here, as he had to vacate his Tilak Lane residence before July 31, a party leader said...

    Kejriwal moves back to Kaushambi house

    Indians no longer need visa to visit Reunion island

    Indians no longer need visa to visit Reunion island
    Indians now do not need a visa to visit the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean for stays up to 15 days, French Ambassador to India Francois Richier said Tuesday....

    Indians no longer need visa to visit Reunion island

    Teenaged girl gang-raped at gunpoint in Delhi

    Teenaged girl gang-raped at gunpoint in Delhi
    A teenaged girl was gang-raped at gunpoint by five people known to her in a house in the capital here, police said Tuesday....

    Teenaged girl gang-raped at gunpoint in Delhi