Congress MP Manish Tewari has criticised the manner in which the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had acted after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. Writing in his upcoming book ’10 Flash Points; 20 Years – National Security Situations that Impacted India’, the former union minister says the way India acted after the November 26-29, 2008 terror attacks displayed a sign of weakness and not of strength.
Our actions should have spoken louder than our words, he says as per the excerpts of the book released by the Congress leader himself on his Twitter account.
“There comes a time when actions must speak louder than words. 26/11 was one such time when it just should have been done. It, therefore, is my considered opinion that India should have actioned a kinetic response in the days following India’s 9/11,” writes Tewari, seeking to draw a comparison between India’s reaction after the Mumbai terror attacks and the United States’ reaction post the World Trade Center attacks.
It may be recalled that 10 terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group had travelled to Mumbai from Pakistan’s Karachi in a boat. They had entered Mumbai from the sea on the night of November 26 and carried out attacks at various places, including top-end hotels, an eating joint and a railway station.
At least 166 people were killed in the deadly attacks, including foreigners, and hundreds of others were injured. Nine of the terrorists were neutralised over a period of four days while one of them, Mohammad Amir Ajmal Kasab, was captured alive. He was later hanged after being sentenced to death. The masterminds of the attacks continue to roam freely on the streets of Pakistan to date.
As per the publisher, the book, which will be released on December 1 this year, looks back at the security situations that have impacted India in the past two decades and dissects our responses – both successes and failures – to them.
Happy to announce that my Fourth Book will be in the market shortly – ’10 Flash Points; 20 Years – National Security Situations that Impacted India’. The book objectively delves into every salient National Security Challenge India has faced in the past two decades,” Tewari tweeted on Tuesday.
NDA government reacts
Reacting to Tewari’s remarks in his book, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said that they do not want to politicise the matter and stressed that the current Narendra Modi government has a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism.
“Be it 26/11 or others, the country knows how the overall situation was handled. We don’t want to politicise. The policy of the Modi government is of zero tolerance towards terrorism,” Joshi said.