Congress' approach towards terrorism weak and soft, says Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday attacked the Congress, saying the approach of the party towards terrorism has been 'soft'.

'You saw it during the ten years of UPA rule led by the Congress how terror attacks were tolerated... proper response was not given,' the senior BJP leader said.

'They believed in sending dossiers to Pakistan to the extent that you will recall that handlers of the Mumbai attack are still not punished,' she said after an interaction with youths from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana here.

'So, the attitude and approach of the Congress party towards terror has always been weak and soft,' Sitharaman said.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of not taking swift action after the 26/11 terror attacks over fears that their 'vote bank' will shift.

He also said the people of Jammu and Kashmir have struggled for decades because of the Congress’ 'weak mindset'.

'India will never forget the times when the country used to suffer frequent terrorist attacks and the Congress leaders would sit with the perpetrators of terrorism,' he said.

During her interaction with youths, Sitharaman answered various questions including on her journey to the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and how she could not complete her PhD as she took up a job overseas.

She also talked about the Startup ecosystem in the country and various other initiatives taken by the present BJP government to make India the third-largest economy in the world.

Currently, India is the fifth largest economy, with the highest rate of growth among the large economies of the world.

Saturday was the last day for campaigning in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly election and voting will take place on Monday, coinciding with polling in all 17 parliamentary seats in Telangana and 25 in Andhra Pradesh.

The counting of votes for the elections is on June 4.