Congress never condemned terror attacks due to vote-bank politics: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said terror attacks were rampant when Congress was in power and that terrorists from Pakistan used to kill Indian soldiers but the then ruling party never condemned them due to “vote-bank” politics.

Paying tribute to the victims of the November 26, 2008 (26/11) Mumbai terror attack, Shah said that it is impossible to carry out such an attack under the watch of the Narendra Modi government.

“Today is the anniversary of the 26/11 attack. On this day (in 2008), Pakistani terrorists killed 164 people in Mumbai. I pay my humble tribute to the departed souls. Though such attacks were rampant during the Congress rule, it is impossible to carry out a 26/11-type terror attack today because Narendra Modi is the prime minister,” Shah said while addressing a poll rally at Talaja town in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district.

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Voting on Talaja and 88 other seats will be done on December 1 in the first phase of the two-phase Gujarat Assembly elections.

“(Former Congress president) Sonia (Gandhi) and (former PM) Manmohan Singh were in power for ten years from 2004 to 2014. During their regime, terrorists from Pakistan used to enter India frequently, kill our soldiers, and even decapitate them. Despite that, Congress never uttered a word. Why? Because of their vote bank. I hope you know who is Congress’s vote bank,” the senior BJP leader said.

He added that PM Modi gave a strong message to the world by carrying out surgical and air strikes on terrorists after Uri and Pulwama terror attacks. The Gandhinagar MP also said the now-scrapped Article 370 (granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir) was the mistake of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

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“Did you not want Article 370 removed from Jammu and Kashmir? For 70 years, these Congressmen preserved Nehru’s mistake as if it was a child. Our PM (Modi) removed it in one go in 2019 and made Kashmir an integral part of India in its true sense,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies)