<p>Raigad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lashed out at the erstwhile UPA government for not striking Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and wanted to know what prevented it from a military response. </p><p>“Congress should tell the people why it prevented the Army from attacking Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. A big Congress leader, who was the then home minister, recently said that after 26/11, our armed forces were ready to strike. The country also wanted that. If he is to be believed, because of pressure from one country it did not happen. The Congress government stopped the armed forces from attacking Pakistan,” Modi said while commissioning the Navi Mumbai International Airport in Maharashtra’s Raigad district. </p><p>This was the first reaction of Modi after former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said in an interview that then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had flown to New Delhi to meet him and then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to urge India not to start a war with Pakistan. </p>.Operation Sindoor restored 'rightful place' of offensive air action in national consciousness: IAF Chief.<p>The PM, however, neither mentioned the US nor took the name of Chidambaram. </p><p>Sharpening his attack on the Congress, Modi said the party needed to tell the country who succumbed under pressure from a foreign country and played with the sentiments of the country. </p><p>The PM said the Opposition party’s weakness emboldened terrorists and compromised national security. “The government in power at the time sent a message of weakness and appeared to surrender before terrorism,” he said and demanded clarity as to who influenced this decision, which he said undermined the sentiments of Mumbai and the nation. </p><p>Citing Operation Sindoor, Modi said for his government, “nothing is more important than the security of the nation and its citizens”.</p><p>In a recent interview, Chidambaram had said: “The whole world descended on Delhi to tell us ‘don’t start a war’ (against Pakistan). Two or three days after I took over (Condoleezza Rice came) to meet me and the PM to say: ‘Please don’t react’. I said this is a decision which the government will take. (But) an act of retribution did cross my mind. The PM had discussed this (retaliatory military action) even when the attack was going on...and the conclusion, largely influenced by the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian Foreign Service, was that we should not physically react to the situation.”</p>
<p>Raigad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lashed out at the erstwhile UPA government for not striking Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and wanted to know what prevented it from a military response. </p><p>“Congress should tell the people why it prevented the Army from attacking Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. A big Congress leader, who was the then home minister, recently said that after 26/11, our armed forces were ready to strike. The country also wanted that. If he is to be believed, because of pressure from one country it did not happen. The Congress government stopped the armed forces from attacking Pakistan,” Modi said while commissioning the Navi Mumbai International Airport in Maharashtra’s Raigad district. </p><p>This was the first reaction of Modi after former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said in an interview that then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had flown to New Delhi to meet him and then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to urge India not to start a war with Pakistan. </p>.Operation Sindoor restored 'rightful place' of offensive air action in national consciousness: IAF Chief.<p>The PM, however, neither mentioned the US nor took the name of Chidambaram. </p><p>Sharpening his attack on the Congress, Modi said the party needed to tell the country who succumbed under pressure from a foreign country and played with the sentiments of the country. </p><p>The PM said the Opposition party’s weakness emboldened terrorists and compromised national security. “The government in power at the time sent a message of weakness and appeared to surrender before terrorism,” he said and demanded clarity as to who influenced this decision, which he said undermined the sentiments of Mumbai and the nation. </p><p>Citing Operation Sindoor, Modi said for his government, “nothing is more important than the security of the nation and its citizens”.</p><p>In a recent interview, Chidambaram had said: “The whole world descended on Delhi to tell us ‘don’t start a war’ (against Pakistan). Two or three days after I took over (Condoleezza Rice came) to meet me and the PM to say: ‘Please don’t react’. I said this is a decision which the government will take. (But) an act of retribution did cross my mind. The PM had discussed this (retaliatory military action) even when the attack was going on...and the conclusion, largely influenced by the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian Foreign Service, was that we should not physically react to the situation.”</p>