Terror boat politicking turns ugly as BJP-Cong fight hits a new low

While the Ministry of Defence prepares to evaluate the communication logs from a suspicious boat that sank after being intercepted by the Coast Guard, the BJP and Congress have turned the incident into a cause for a different kind of war. While the ruling party has accused the opposition of speaking in Pakistan’s voice, the Congress has retorted by saying it didn’t need lessons from the ‘chaperones of terrorism’. In response to the Congress demanding that the BJP should name the terror group connected with the mysterious fishing boat near the Gujarat coast, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said on Sunday that the opposition had hit a ‘abysmal’ low in politics. Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar on Saturday had asked the government to “come clean” on the Pakistani boat issue and explain “which terrorist organisation” was behind the episode that unfolded on the high seas. He also questioned how the government can claim that a terror strike has been prevented without any evidence. “We are very sad that the Congress chose not to stand with the Indian government. The Congress chose not to stand with the Indian Coast Guard and not to speak in favour of the Indian intelligence agencies. The Congress chose to stand by the probable perpetrators of terrorism,” Patra told reporters today. [caption id=“attachment_2028813” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Prime Minister Narendra Modi. AFP[/caption] “The Congress has time and again spoken in the same language as Pakistan,” the spokesperson said. Pakistan has denied any knowledge about the incident. Accusing the Congress of ‘supplying oxygen’ to the Pakistan establishment time and again, Patra claimed that Sonia Gandhi had shed tears over terrorists killed in the Batla House encounter in Delhi in 2008. “The question we are putting in front of the Congress is: who does Congress believe Indian government or the Pakistan government?” Patra asked. Meanwhile the Congress retorted on Sunday by saying that it was only playing the role of a responsible opposition by seeking all the facts in the case. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said that they didn’t need lessons on nationalism from the ‘chaperones of terrorists’. Tewari said that BJP leadership had escorted known terrorists to freedom in the case of the IC814 hijacking in 1999 and the party would do well to remember it. The Congress spokerson said that the party acknowledged that the Pakistan government had been waging a ‘proxy war’ against India, but said that the BJP’s reaction was a blow to the bipartisanship required for national security. “The government needs to put all the facts in the case in the public space,” Tewari told Times Now. He said that the BJP-led government’s failure to handle national security was apparent in the number of civilian casualties due to Indo-Pak border skirmishes. The ugly war of words comes in the midst of fevered speculation over unanswered questions about the ’terror’ incident, namely why the fishing boat that was intercepted by the Coast Guard on 31 December attempted to escape and what cargo it was carrying. The boat sank after its crew allegedly set fire to it and Coast Guard authorities have said they have been unable to find any survivors or discern the nature of the cargo on board the boat thus far. However, the lack of clarity has done little to blunt the appetite of the Congress and BJP for political conflict. The invective on both sides, which was fairly heated during the national election, is hitting new lows with spokespersons of both parties casting wild allegations in order to score cheap political points – none of which is likely to be reassuring to the average Indian citizen.