New Delhi, February 21: The Congress on Thursday fired fresh salvo against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, charging him of exhibiting an insensitive approach when the CRPF convoy in Jammu & Kashmir were targeted in a fatal terrorist attack. Modi, at the time, was "busy shooting" for a film in Uttarakhand's Jim Corbett park, the party said.
Modi, on February 14, was scheduled to shoot for a documentary being made by the Discovery. He had arrived at the national park earlier in the day, and held talks with forest department officials before beginning the shoot. PM Modi to Feature in Discovery Documentary Recalling His Days in Himalaya; Shooting Held in Jim Corbett National Park
Local media reports alleged that Modi was working with the Discovery team at the time when Indian personnel were attacked in the fidayeen strike. Their claim, however, has not been officially confirmed.
"When the whole country was mourning the loss of lives of our jawans in Pulwama attack in the afternoon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was busy shooting for a film in Jim Corbett park till evening. Is there any PM in the world like this? I have no words really," Congress' national spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
A section of social media users had been taking stinging jibes against the Prime Minister, after images of the documentary shoot went viral.
शोक नहीं शौक: PM Modi was briefed immediately about the #PulwamaTerrorAttack when he was about to shoot for a film for Discovery at Corbett. Instead of rushing back to Delhi, he spent the entire day at shooting & returned only late in the evening.
But, let's not Qn the Govt! pic.twitter.com/KIMAz4MHV5
— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) February 18, 2019
Modi shooting for a Discovery channel film the day of the #Pulwamaattack pic.twitter.com/0cq49eSkqp
— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) February 18, 2019
The attack on CRPF convoy, carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), ended up claiming the lives of 40 Indian security personnel.
Apart from attacking Modi for the film shooting in Jim Corbett park, Surjewala also questioned the "intelligence failure" which led to the strike in Pulwama.
"How did terrorists acquire a huge amount of RDX and rocket launchers? 48 hours before the attack JeM released a video warning of attack. There was an intelligence report also on 8th February. Why were these warnings ignored," he questioned, further charging the government of adopting an unclear policy in Jammu & Kashmir.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 21, 2019 12:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).