When is the time to act on terror: Congress

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti appealed for peace talks immediately after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's warning to Pakistan prompted the Congress, on Tuesday, to accuse the Modi government of having a "non-existent" policy for Kashmir.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "dithering" while soldiers were paying with their blood because of the "opportunistic" alliance in Jammu and Kashmir.

"PDP says "talks" with Pakistan. BJP Defence Minister says "Pakistan will pay the price". While our soldiers pay with their blood for BJP/ PDP's opportunistic alliance and non-existent Kashmir policy; Modi Ji dithers," tweeted Gandhi.

Addressing the budget session of the JK Assembly, soon after the Sunjuwan attack, Mehbooba Mufti had said on Monday that even if it runs the risk of her being termed anti-national, there was no alternative to talks.

Recalling that there have been 206 major terror attacks in J&K in the past 45 months and the 160 ceasefire violations in the past 44 days, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari questioned the rationale of Mehbooba's statement.

"We would like to ask the BJP where they stand on J&K CM's statement, because this has very profound national security implications," said Tewari adding the Modi government needs to be asked about its policy towards Pakistan.

Terming the present situation as "very disturbing", Tewari said that one hand, the PDP-BJP government files an FIR against an Army Major, and on the other hand, the BJP is shedding "crocodile tears" and distancing itself from that FIR but will not withdraw it.

Questioning the "ingenuous formulation" of the BJP Government, that "terror and talks cannot go together but that does not preclude us from talking about terror," Tewari said. "We would like to ask: When will the time of talking about terror be over and when will you start acting on terror?"

Meanwhile, a certain section of the BJP agreed this was not the time for talks. "The whole nation stands with the security forces against Pakistan," said Sunil Sethi, chief spokesman of state BJP. "Talks at this time with the rogue state will only hit the morale of Indian security agencies fighting to contain militant activities and bringing about peace. Amidst the sound of bullets and missiles, a certain class is advocating talks between Pakistan and India. Talks are not at all feasible at this juncture when Pakistan is openly supporting militant attacks in the state. It also should be kept in mind that the slain militants from Sunjuwan hailed from Pakistan.".

He added that talks with Pakistan is the matter pertaining to the Central Government, with no scope for interference by anyone.

— with inputs from Ishfaq-ul-Hassan