New Delhi: Congress, on Monday, launched a scathing attack on Home Minister Amit Shah over Chhattisgarh's Bijapur Naxal attack in which 22 jawans being martyred, alleging that HM was busy in election campaigning during the time of this incident and if any other Home Minister was at his place, he would have resigned over the matter.
Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said to the media, "This incident occurred on April 3 at around 11:30 am. For over 24 hours, Home Minister didn't even respond to this. It is because he was busy campaigning in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Then he addressed an election rally in Assam. How can a Home Minister be so irresponsible?"
This came after 22 personnel were killed in the line of duty and over 30 sustained injuries after they were ambushed by the Naxals in a forest along the border of Bijapur and Sukma districts on Saturday. While one CRPF inspector is still missing.
Surjewala alleged, "Since Shah became the Home Minister of India, as many as 5,213 Naxal attacks have occurred since 2015 till date, in which 1,416 have lost their lives, as per the Government's records."
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He further added, "Anti-Naxal operation is the sole responsibility of Home Minister. This was a central paramilitary operation that led to wiping out Naxalites, assisted by the state forces, which they dutifully do. These security personnel have got martyred but their Chief is busy doing election rallies with a filmstar in Tamil Nadu."
The Congress leader also cited the incident of Mumbai terror attacks when the then Home Minister Shivraj Patil had to resign as he changed his clothes for public appearances when the attack happened.
"There was a time when a Home Minister had to resign because he changed his clothes, which is not a big deal. Clothes can be dirty. But here you have a Home Minister who continued with his election campaigning for 24 hours after our jawans got martyred during the operation. He did a favour by cancelling his last two rallies in Assam," Surjewala stated.
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He asked, "But should questions not be raised over a Home Minister who continued canvassing even after the news came of our jawans being killed? Is it enough to say that their sacrifices won't go in vain?"
Surjewala also raised questions over the delay in the rescue operation. "Maybe lives could have been saved with a swift response. Why no one is asking for Amit Shah's resignation?" he asserted.
Earlier, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had alleged that the Bijapur operation was "incompetently" executed and "poorly designed".
He made this statement while tagging a news clip where CRPF DG Kuldeep Singh had stated that there was "no operational and intelligence failure". To this, Gandhi tweeted, "If there was no intelligence failure then a 1:1 death ratio means it was a poorly designed and incompetently executed operation. Our jawans are not Cannon fodder to be martyred at will."
Later, in another tweet, he demanded, "No Indian Jawan should face an enemy without body armour in the 21st century. It needs to be made available to every Soldier."
