New Delhi: The Union government has said in the all-party meeting convened on Thursday (April 24) that despite “everything going well” in recent years including businesses running and tourism returning, the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 civilians lost their lives was a “lapse”.
The Wire has learnt that during the meeting, opposition members while pledging their support to the government in taking action against terrorism also raised questions about Prime Minister Modi’s absence in the meeting and lapses that led to the attack as well as concerns about a hate campaign being run in the media and on social media following the attack.
The all-party meeting was chaired by Union defence minister Rajnath Singh and was attended by home minister Amit Shah, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and external affairs minister S. Jaishankar from the government’s side.
Modi, who earlier on Thursday vowed “punishment beyond imagination” at a National Panchayati Raj Day event in Bihar’s Madhubani, was not present at the meeting and continued with his pre-scheduled events in the poll-bound state.
Representatives of the Janata Dal (United) – the BJP’s key ally in the Union government and in Bihar – were also not present at the all-party meeting due to the prime minister’s presence in the state.
Notably, the National Conference, which is in power in Jammu and Kashmir, was also , with the government not sending any communication to the party.
‘Lapse’
Following the meeting, Rijiju said that the defence minister informed the leaders about the action taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), while Intelligence Bureau (IB) and home ministry officials briefed the leaders about how the incident had been a “lapse” despite “everything going well” in recent years.
“This incident is very unfortunate and the government promised more stringent action,” he said to reporters after the meeting.
“For the last few years, businesses were running well, tourists were coming; this incident has spoiled that environment and everyone raised their concerns about this. All political parties presented their views and made it clear that the country needs to stand and speak in one voice against terror.”
Rijiju said that officials from the IB and the home ministry also briefed party leaders about “where lapses occurred”.
“Our officials, including from the IB and home ministry, also gave a briefing about how this incident took place and where lapses occurred.
“The area where the incident took place is not on the main road, you have to walk or go by pony, [and the main road is] about 2-2.5 hours away from the meadow where this incident took place. All parties were told that despite everything going well, this incident has been a lapse and everyone is pained by this. So that this does not happen again in future, officials explained in their briefing.
“All parties said that they are with the government against terrorism and the whole country is with the government,” he said.
The concern about security lapses and an intelligence failure was raised by the opposition members, The Wire has learnt.
Sources said that during the meeting, party leaders were informed that the area where the incident took place – in Pahalgam’s Baisaran valley – is usually opened to tourists around June and local authorities are required to be informed when tourists are taken there – which was not done, and small batches of tourists were sent to the area from April 20 without informing local authorities.
“You are saying that it is a sensitive place and only opens during the Amarnath Yatra when there is a lot of security,” said Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh after the meeting to The Wire.
“So how was it opened on April 20 without anyone knowing? Is this a joke? How did 500-1,000 people reach there without anyone’s knowledge? If terrorists knew that it had opened on the 20th, how did our government not know? They only gave a roundabout response to this.”
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi, who had earlier on Thursday questioned why only those parties with five or more MPs were being invited, also attended the meeting after Shah issued an invitation.
“Why was the CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] not deployed in the meadow? Why were CRPF units removed in January?” said Owaisi to reporters on the questions he raised during the meeting.
“Why did the quick reaction team take one hour to reach there-and they shot people by asking their religion. In 2000, 30 people were killed in Pahalgam. I asked what happened to the report following that incident?”
Owaisi speaks to the media after the all-party meeting. Photo: PTI.
Hate campaign on social media
The Wire has also learnt that opposition members including Owaisi, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar)’s Supriya Sule, the AAP’s Singh and the Indian Union Muslim League’s Haris Beeran also raised concerns about the hate campaign being run on mainstream media and social media, including by the BJP’s own handles.
On Tuesday, the BJP’s Chhattisgarh X handle posted an of the victims of the attack with the caption: “Dharm poocha, jaati nahi (‘Asked for religion, not caste’).”
The post was slammed by opposition leaders who accused the BJP for having “zero sympathy” for those who lost their lives in the attack.
“We asked for an end to the hatred campaign being run on social media with cartoons that they themselves are posting,” said Singh.
Owaisi also said he had raised concerns about the “false propaganda” being run against Kashmiris and Kashmiri students.
“The false propaganda against the Kashmiris and Kashmiri students should be stopped. If people on social media and TV channel anchors keep making this a Hindu-Muslim issue, then the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba will smile, Pakistan will smile. I condemn the way the terrorists killed people by asking about their religion. But if you do this in response, then you are helping them,” he said.
Prime minister’s absence
The prime minister’s absence was also raised by at least four opposition members in the meeting, The Wire has learnt.
Following the meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the prime minister’s presence was essential to the meeting but that he remained absent.
“We have raised this question before as well. That in such an important meeting, the prime minister’s presence is important because his decision is final. They said that ‘we will communicate everything to him’. But we said that explaining is different and the prime minister himself listening is different,” said Kharge.
“He is giving speeches in English and Hindi in Bihar but did not come here,” said the AAP’s Singh.
“But the government said in response that we have chaired such meetings before and your concerns will be communicated to him.”
Following the meeting, Rijiju said that it saw all party leaders speak in one voice.
“Some issues were raised and those were clarified. The meeting ended on a positive note. I believe that the spirit that we adopted in this meeting to fight terrorism unitedly is very important and we have appealed that we should not do politics and the country should be united. This message was also given by everyone. We will take revenge against Pakistan and its sympathisers for this incident in a united manner,” he said.
Apart from Kharge, Singh, Owaisi and Sule, the meeting was attended by leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Praful Patel (NCP), Sasmit Patra (Biju Janata Dal), Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu (Telugu Desam Party), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), Sudip Bandopadhyay (Trinamool Congress), Premchand Gupta (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Thiruchi Siva (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee (CPI (M)).