Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday accused the Centre of giving a “clean chit to Pakistan” as defence minister Rajnath Singh said that “terrorism has no nationality and theology.”In a social media post on X, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the new “stance is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy appeasement of the US and calibrated capitulation to China.““Yesterday, the defence minister, obviously with the approval of and at the instance of the Prime Minister, gave a shameful clean chit to Pakistan while speaking in Bishkek. Is Pakistan not the epicentre of terrorism? Are there no terrorist camps in Pakistan with India as their target? Is there no idelogical anti-India indoctrination in Pakistan?” Jairam Ramesh asked.“Were not the Mumbai and Pahalgam terror attacks masterminded and executed by terrorists from Pakistan? Clearly this new stance in relation to Pakistan is all part of the PM’s policy of appeasement of the US and calibrated capitulation to China. The defence minister’s shocking statements are as anti-national as the PM’s bizarre clean chit to China on June 19, 2020,” he added.This came as Rajnath, while addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation defence ministers’ meeting in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek on Tuesday said “Operation Sindoor had demonstrated India’s firm resolve that terror epicentres will be meted out justifiable punishment”.His warning to Pakistan came before its defence minister Khawaja Asif at the meeting.“Just a couple of days back, on 22 April, we remembered the victims of the heinous terrorist attack in Pahalgam. The carnage in Pahalgam had shook the entire humanity. During Op Sindoor, we demonstrated our firm resolve that terrorism epicentres are no longer immune to justifiable punishment. Last year the Tianjin Declaration brought out our firm and collective stance against terrorism,” the defence minister said.“It was a testimony to our zero-tolerance outlook towards terrorism and its perpetrators, which was endorsed by this esteemed Forum.But the real test of our collective credibility remains in consistency. We must not forget that terrorism has no nationality and no theology. No grievance, real or supposed, can become an excuse for terrorism and humanitarian loss,” he added.On the global situation, he said, “The real crisis today is not of a non-existent order but a tendency to question the established rules-based world order. We must focus on a global consensus where co-existence, cohabitation and compassion take precedence over chaos, competition and conflict…We should not allow it to become an era of violence and war, but an era of peace and prosperity.”
