All Mass Terrorist Attacks during Congress Rule

Conspiracy of Silence and Doublespeak in holding the Congress responsible and accountable

The BJP’s criticism of the Manmohan Singh UPA Government’s anti-terror record is not without basis if we one actually pays attention to the facts.

If one looks at the history of terrorism in India one can draw a clear distinction between the terrorist campaigns with a clear political motive and the wave of terrorist attacks in recent times with no apparent political motive. Those with a stated political agenda like the Khalistani Terrorist Attacks of the 1980s, the Fidayeen attacks by J&K based groups on political and government targets, the Naxalite attacks and the assorted insurgent groups in the North East have been active over the decades but none of these groups indulged in co-ordinated attacks of mass terror aimed at causing maximum public casualities save the odd plane bombing by the Khalistanis.

However if one takes a critical look at the chronology of serial attacks of mass terror in India there is a chilling reality that becomes evident. The CNN-IBN in its lead story outlines this chronology, that Offstumped has reproduced

Chronology of major bombings in India

- August 25, 2007: Bombs rip through crowded public areas in the city of Hyderabad, killing at least 30 people.

- May 2007: A bomb at a historic Hyderabad mosque kills 11 people.

- February 2007: Bombs detonate on train headed through northern India for Pakistan, killing 68 people.

- September 2006: At least 30 people are killed and 100 injured in twin blasts at a mosque in Malegaon in western India.

- July 2006: Seven bombs on Mumbai commuter trains kill more than 200 and injure more than 700 others.

- March 2006: Twin bombings at a train station and a temple in the holy city of Varanasi kill 20 people. Kashmiri militants are blamed.

- October 2005: Three bombs placed in busy New Delhi markets one day before Diwali kill 62 people and wound hundreds. India blames Kashmiri militants.

- August 2003: Two taxis packed with explosives blow up outside a Mumbai tourist attraction and a busy market, killing 52 and wounding more than 100.

- March 1993: Muslim underworld figures tied to Pakistani militants allegedly carry out a series of bombings on Mumbai’s stock exchange along with trains, hotels and gas stations in the city, killing 257 people and wounding more than 1,100. (Info courtesy AP)

All of them save the odd Ghatkopar incident in Mumbai of 2003 have been under Congress rule in both the States where the incidents occurred and the Center. Even the Varnasi blasts that took place in Uttar Pradesh were under a Government that the Congress was very much a part of.

It should be noted that despite the oft repeated Media Myths about the BJP’s anti-terror record that not a single act of Mass Terror occurred under its watch.

So why is it that the mainstream media has been so forgiving of the Congress ?

This is the same media that has gone out of its way to campaign for action on the Srikrishna Commission Report on the 1993 riots but has pretty much gone to sleep on the utter delinquency of the Manmohan Singh Government when it comes to the issue of dealing with mass terrorist attacks.

This is the same media that went out of its way to be cheerleaders to that defunct India Pakistan Joint Anti-Terrorism Institutional Mechanism but has pretty much left the Manmohan Singh Government off the hook when it came to giving it a quiet burial.

Offstumped Bottomline: The Congress is guilty of deep and deliberate delinquency in dealing with terrorism. The fact that every single mass terrorist attack took place in States ruled by the Congress while the Congress was in power at the Center is testimony to this fact. There is a conspiracy of silence and doublespeak in the way the media has not held the Congress Party responsible and accountable for every single attack of mass terror in India. It is time this conspiracy of silence and doublespeak was exposed.

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