The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday intensified its attack on the Congress over former home minister P. Chidambaram’s recent remark that India chose not to respond to Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks following intervention from foreign countries.
BJP MP Sambit Patra said then UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi made India bow down and gave shelter to Pakistan.
"It was Sonia Gandhi's dictation that we shouldn't act against Pakistan. She made India bow down and gave shelter to Pakistan," Patra told news agency ANI. He also accused the opposition party of being influenced by foreign powers.
#WATCH | Bhubaneswar | On former Union Minister P Chidambaram citing foreign pressure behind India's lack of retaliation against Pakistan after 26/11 attacks, BJP MP Sambit Patra says, "It was Sonia Gandhi's dictation that don't act against Pakistan. She made India bow down and… pic.twitter.com/NArN2oP7R7
— ANI (@ANI) October 4, 2025
Quoting former foreign minister and senior Congress leader Natwar Singh’s autobiography, Patra mocked that Sonia Gandhi would decide cabinet ministers after consulting with America.
"Natwar Singh wrote in his autobiography that the Sonia Gandhi government used to decide the Indian Cabinet Ministers after consulting America... She believes 'saugandh mujhe us videsh ki, main desh nahi uthne dungi'," the BJP leader said.
Patra hit out at the then UPA government for not taking action against Pakistan, saying “this was the India of that time under the reign of the Gandhi family”.
He alleged that Sonia Gandhi might have asked then PM Manmohan Singh, under pressure from US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, "not to take kinetic action against Pakistan", even as around 160 people were killed in the Mumbai attack.
In a recent podcast, Chidambaram suggested that he personally favoured military retribution against Pakistan following the ghastly terror attack, but the government decided to go by the external affairs ministry's view to resort to diplomatic measures against the neighbouring country.
He noted that world powers, including the US, wanted India not to start a war with Pakistan. |
