Agenda 2019 – Part - 2 : Prime Minister Modi’s Evolving National Security Doctrine https://t.co/pU8aqvC9I5 — Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) 1552384745000

NEW DELHI: Union minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday attacked the Congress for going "soft on terror"and its "mahagathbandhan friends" for diluting the fight against terror for votes.In a blog titled 'Prime Minister Modi’s Evolving National Security Doctrine', the finance minister said that the JeM terrorist attack in Pulwama has brought back into focus the key issue of national security. "We have a history of valour and sacrifice. India struggled for Independence but with their heads held high. We still find it difficult to digest our humiliation of 1962. We remember the 1965 and 1971 Wars and the 1999 Kargil war with a sense of honour and satisfaction. Indians believe that the country must be secured," he wrote.Slamming the Congress and its allies for appeasement, Jaitley said, "The government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee legislated POTA. The Congress promised to repeal the law. The distinction between an anti-terrorism and an anti-minority law is significant. The Congress and its allies tried to obliterate that difference. Since then the Congress started going soft on terror. It started an appeasement of terror.""When the Batla House encounter took place and the terrorists were killed, the Congress leaders dubbed it as a fake encounter. The terrorists they claimed were innocent. When the guilty of the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast, 26/11 attack on India’s commercial capital and Parliament attack case were to be executed, many Congressmen started appealing for amnesty. The ‘disruptionists’ who prefer to call themselves ‘Left liberals’, fought a legal battle to save the terrorists," he wrote.Attacking Rahul Gandhi , Jaitley said that the low point in the party’s attitude towards separatism and terror was reached when a combination of separatists, jehadis and Maoists ganged up to raise slogans on ‘Desh ke tukde tukde’ at JNU and the Congress president stood shoulder to shoulder with them to defend their right of free speech to champion the cause of breaking India into pieces. "He deviated from the Congress legacy of not associating with these extremists," the Union minister said.Saying that PM Narendra Modi inherited Kashmir as a legacy issue, the finance minister said, " PM Modi experimented the conventional method of trying to soften the relationship with Pakistan in a hope that wiser sense would prevail, but Pakistan responded with Pathankot, Uri and Pulwama."Jaitley said the Congress party is one with the government on condemning Pulwama terror attack resulting in death of 41 CRPF jawans, but is disturbed about air strikes in Balakot , Pakistan."The Congress is one with the government on condemning Pulwama but is disturbed about Balakot. Thus, it repeatedly rubbishes the surgical strikes and the air strike in Balakot. This was a self-goal by the Congress in domestic politics," he said.He further said the Congress had no structured plan during ten years of UPA on how to deal with the problems of Jammu and Kashmir.At a time when India is battling ultra-Left and Jehadi terrorists, facing with serious threat of cross border terrorism , Jaitley wondered if electorate could trust those who have weakened the fight against terrorism."Should not those who have played into the Pakistani hands be taught a severe lesson in these elections? Unhesitatingly the answer to the above question is a big ‘yes'. This country is safe and secure under the NDA Government led by Prime Minister Modi," he said.The Modi-led NDA government will be seeking a second term as 900 million people are expected to vote in the Lok Sabha elections beginning April 11. Counting of votes will be taken up on May 23.