Narendra Modi was busy shooting for film in Jim Corbett while India mourned Pulwama attack, says Congress

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was shooting for a documentary at Jim Corbett National Park on the afternoon when a suicide bomber killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama on 14 February, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a media interaction on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_6056501” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala. ANI[/caption] Displaying pictures of Modi  from the national park and detailing his itinerary, Surjewala said that Pulwama attack was reported around 3.10 pm on 14 February. Citing news reports, he said that Modi was in Jim Corbett till 6.30 pm and exited from the Dhangarhi gate at 6.40 pm, having made no statement on the dastardly attacks till then. “When the country was mourning the loss of lives of jawans in the Pulwama attack, Narendra Modi was busy shooting a film till the evening. Is there any Prime Minister in the world like this?” Surjewala said. He further said that Modi was at the Ramnagar PWD guest house for tea at 7.10 pm, accounting for four hours of silence on the Pulwama attack at his end. The Congress spokesperson also hit out at BJP chief Amit Shah ‘politicisation of terrorism’, when the latter said in Assam’s Lakhimpur that the sacrifices of the slain CRPF jawans will not go in vain with the BJP government at the Centre. He further said that questions must be asked about the gross intelligence failure of the government, questioning the priorities of the prime minister who “has gone on a tour of South Africa instead of tackling terrorism”. Surjewala also lashed out at Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Alphons Kannanthanam for posting a selfie on Facebook with the dead body of a CRPF jawan who lost his life in the Pulwama attack.

Alphons visited Havildar Vasantha Kumar VV’s home in Kerala and laid a wreath on his coffin. The Union minister, however, later said that it was not a selfie and someone else have clicked it even asking the Kerala DGP to investigate into the matter.