Rajnath Singh swipes at Congress record in war on terror

New Delhi: In a stinging attack on the Congress, Union home minister Rajnath Singh accused his UPA predecessor, Sushilkumar Shinde, of belittling India’s fight against terrorism by coining the term “Hindu terror”. Taking the Congress MPs by surprise, Mr Singh said a UPA home minister (Shinde) had earned praise from Lashkar-e-Toiaba chief Hafiz Saeed for coining the term ‘Hindu terror’.

“In this House in 2013, the then home minister had coined the new term ‘Hindu terrorism’ in order to change the course of the probe. Because of this, we have not been able to fight terrorism as strongly as we should be. Hafiz Saeed of Pakistan congratulated him. Our government will never allow such a shameful situation again,” asserted Mr Singh, attacking the Opposition for making “noise” as the House was discussing the Gurdaspur terror attack.

Mr Singh referred to the Sharm-el-Sheikh fiasco and statements at the Havana non-aligned summit, besides the 1962 war with China, to highlight the Congress’ failures.

Congress MPs camping in the Well holding placards had returned to their seats and heard the home minister’s statement on the Gurdaspur attack. But they soon demanded a discussion, which Speaker refused, saying they must first give notice.

The minister also recited a poem Chin chheen deshka gulab legaya/ Tashkent me deshka Lalsogaya yeh sulahki shakal kosawar-te-rahe/jeete baazi hartey rahe (China snatched India’s rose, Tashkent saw the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri and India lost at the diplomatic table after winning the war due to its compromises)”.