New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge reiterated his claim on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had prior intel of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam which took place on April 22 and killed 26 innocent people. He cited the cancellation of a planned visit of the PM to the Valley shortly before April 22, the fateful day.
Also, he accused Centre of failing to prevent the terror attack at Pahalgam and levelled accusation that the loss of 26 lives was a result of the inability of the government to provide security to the tourists who were visiting the region at that time. While addressing a rally of Congress in Karnataka’s Vijayanagara, he said, “26 people were killed in Pahalgam because the Modi government didn’t provide security to tourists there. Modi did not go to Kashmir because the Intelligence agencies asked him not to. Why didn’t you (Centre) tell the tourists not to go there (Pahalgam)? If you had told them, 26 lives could have been saved.”
Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha was also present at the rally and he praised the Karnataka government led by Congress for its welfare schemes, and claimed it had kept its promise of providing welfare schemes. Also, he said that one lakh families in the state would now receive land ownership rights. Gandhi, while listing the initiatives of the party on education, electricity, food, and women’s free bus travel, “In the BJP model, if you fall ill, you get drowned in debt. In the Congress model, you have money in your pocket for treatment.”
Kharge also slammed the Modi government’s foreign policy over the alleged lack of support from the global community in the face of the Pahalgam attack and the subsequent Operation Sindoor. He wrorte on X (formerly Twitter), “PM Modi has been making frequent foreign trips for the last 11 years, but our India is now alone! In the last 11 years, Prime Minister Modi has made 151 foreign trips and visited 72 countries. Out of these, he has visited the US 10 times. Yet, our country stands alone under the Modi government’s foreign policy. Is it the Prime Minister’s job to visit foreign countries and pose for photos?”
PM Modi has been making frequent foreign trips for the last 11 years, but when India needed international support to expose Pakistan, no other country came forward to support us.
In the last 11 years, Prime Minister Modi has made 151 foreign trips and visited 72 countries. Out… pic.twitter.com/frtnFOLCtU
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) May 20, 2025
Kharge’s comments came a day after the Congress accused the BJP-led government of allegedly leveraging Operation Sindoor for political mileage in the run-up to the Bihar Assembly elections.