Cong assails government over handling of Pathankot attack

Hitting out at the government over the handling of Pathankot terror attack, Congress today said "conflicting" statements on the incident showed "breakdown of institutional mechanism" as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "concentrated" all powers in his hands.
Leading the party's charge, Congress President Sonia Gandhi termed the internal security situation as "serious" and hoped that Centre was taking all necessary steps to neutralize terror threats.
Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken went hammer and tongs against the government alleging that institutional mechanism stands "demolished" and the government is "in dark".
"Institutions are functioning in isolation and not in tandem, which is scary. Even the Home Minister is not aware how many terrorists were neutralised. The Home Minister does not even know that whether the operation is yet over or not. After Home Minister says that the operation is over, the Home Secretary says it is continuing.

"If even the Home Minister does know what has happened, it only points to the extent of the breakdown of institutional mechanism in this government. This shows the government is in dark and falling at each other. Sections of the government are not even aware how things are being done," Maken said at the AICC briefing.
He rued that even after passage of 56 hours, it was not clear whether Cabinet Committee on Security has met or not.

"The institutional mechanism, which has to respond in such serious situations has been demolished as the Prime Minister has concentrated all powers in his hand. CCS is one of the examples to show the Prime Minister is trying to do everything from PMO and and even concerned ministers are not being kept in the loop," Maken alleged.

As operations against two remaining terrorists at Pathankot air base continued, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said yesterday that it was unsure if more militants were still holed up. The comments by Mehrishi came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted saying the operation had been completed with the killing of five terrorists. Singh later deleted his tweet.
Maken said it was unfortunate a number of ministers of the central government claimed that the operation was over even though it was continuing. He said such "conflicting" statements only showed "lack of coordination" within the government in the event of such serious security challenges.

He also raised questions over the "silence" of the government on Pakistan's role in the attack.
Maken said the Pathankot terror attack has raised serious
concerns regarding India's internal security and its handling by the Modi Government.
"Particularly, intelligence report of a terror module having infiltrated into Delhi, bomb scare happening on Shatabdi Express and all-round general security alert has created an atmosphere of insecurity, raising a question mark on government's efficacy to neutralize the threat with the alacrity that it deserves.
"Seemingly, there is a lack of command and control structure within the government to deal with, take control of and direct elimination of the terror attack like the one on Pathankot, Punjab. Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) did not even meet once to take stock of the situation over last 3 days," Maken said.

He alleged that even as the neutralization of terrorists at Pathankot airbase continued with our security forces fighting valiantly, Prime Minister Modi, was propagating yoga at a gathering in Karnataka.
"Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar was preoccupied in his home state of Goa, as always. A usually out of loop Home Minister Rajnath Singh first declared the operation to flush out terrorist successful through a tweet at 7 PM on January 2 2015 and said that 5 terrorists have been killed. After being contradicted by his Home Secretary, he shockingly deleted his own tweet.
"External Affairs Ministers, Sushma Swaraj, in the meanwhile, calls a meeting of ex-envoys. Complete disharmony and dis-jointed responses by those responsible for providing leadership in this time of a serious terror attack speaks volumes about the political leadership as also command and control structures within the Government," he said.

Maken rued that even as the security forces continued to battle militants at Pathankot Air Force base station in Punjab, Union Minister of Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal released a press statement on Sunday evening congratulating the forces for successfully ending the operation.
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Maken said the Prime Minister should have convened a meeting of CCS with all his Ministers, monitored the situation and provided a clear cut unified command to give a befitting reply to Pakistani terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan.
"Besides saving many lives in the process, Modiji should have sent a strong message of reassurance of security to all countrymen and a stern warning to those in Pakistan exporting terror modules into India.

"May we remind the Prime Minister that in the midst of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, he proceeded to reach the site of attack in Mumbai, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat and even held a press conference criticizing the Congress government even as the attack was continuing," the Congress spokesperson said.
Asking why cannot the same Prime Minister now take control of the situation in Pathankot instead of "shying away" from defining Pakistani terrorists. Maken wondered "why is the Prime Minister giving a new description of terrorists as 'enemies of humanity' instead of describing them as 'Pakistani terrorists'?"
He wanted to know why the government had not stated clearly as to why was Pathankot terror attack not prevented despite availability of specific intelligence inputs. Maken said the same terrorist module had committed two separate incidents of abduction and killing before finally attacking the Pathankot airbase.

"Despite specific input having been provided by none less than the abducted SP of Punjab police, how did the terrorists manage to enter our frontline Airforce base and wreak havoc?
"A mere internal enquiry ordered by Defence Minister, Shri Manohar Parrikar cannot be a substitute for such a serious lapse of security strategy and protecting the key defence assets. The Modi government has not provided any answers to these key questions including assuring countrymen about the important security issues," he held.
The Congress spokesperson also chose the occassion to pay tribute to the valour and sacrifice of security forces.
Maken said the Pathankot attack was one of the most sinister terror strikes since the 26/11 in Mumbai. "The entire country, including the Congress Party, has stood with the security forces and the government in this hour and will stand united in fending off threats to India's security," he said.