Stepping up attack on the Narendra Modi government over the Pulwama terror strike, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Saturday asked the prime minister to explain to the nation why the then NDA dispensation had released terror outfit JeM chief Masood Azhar from Indian jail.
Raking up the release of Azhar by the Vajpayee dispensation in 1999 in exchange for passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane, he said Modi should tell the country "how Masood Azhar was sent back (to Pakistan), who sent and which government sent him (back)".
He also asserted that the Congress would not bow down to terror.
Gandhi's attack on the Modi government on national security comes amid an escalating war of words between the BJP and the Congress over India's air strikes on terror camps in Pakistan after a suicide bomber attack on a CRPF convoy killed 40 jawans in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, with each accusing the other of politicising the issue.
In a fierce attack on the opposition, Modi had called them "poster boys of Pakistan" for seeking proof of the IAF's action on a terror camp in Balakot in Pakistan and asked them to stop appeasing Pakistan.
"Some days ago CRPF people were killed in Pulwama. I have a small question to the prime minister. Who killed these CRPF jawans? What is the name of the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed?...Masood Azhar," Gandhi said at a rally here in north Karnataka, where he sounded the party's bugle for the Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress chief said, "Modiji makes me understand who sent Masood Azhar from India's jail to Pakistan. Didn't the BJP government send this person from India's jail to Pakistan?
"Didn't you send (then Union minister) Jaswant Singh and your National Security Advisor (Ajit Doval) on the same flight? Did you forget that your (party's) government sent this person from India's jail to Kandahar(in Afghanistan)?"
He told the crowd, "Go to the internet, you can see the photo of Ajit Doval who is the National Security Advisor of Narendra Modi along with Masood Azhar at Kandahar airport."
On the Rafale fighter jet issue, Gandhi asked Modi to explain "why he gave Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani. You make make understand why did you purchase Rs 526 crore aircraft at Rs 1,600 crore."
"Earlier when he used say acche din, people used to respond saying 'aayenge' (will come). You remember? Now if someone says chowkidaar, people respond 'chor hai'."
Gandhi said Modi claims he wants to do 'chowkidari', but "doesn't do your (people's) chowkidaari, he does Anil Ambani's chowkidaari."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content