Congress leader P Chidambaram voiced disappointment on Thursday, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of wrongly attributing remarks about India’s response to the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks to him.
“I quote the Hon’ble PM’s words: …..has said India was ready to respond after 26/11, but because of the pressure exerted by some country, then the Congress govt stopped India’s armed forces from attacking Pakistan,” the former Home Minister said in a post on X.
“The statement has three parts, and each one of them is WRONG, terribly WRONG,” he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday slammed the Congress party for not ‘acting’ against Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai attacks due to pressure from a foreign country. The Prime Minister sought answers from the Congress party on made the decision at that time.
“It is disappointing to read that the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India imagined the words and attributed them to me,” Chidambaram said on 9 October.
The Prime Minister was referring to recent Chidambaram’s remarks admitting, in a recent interview, that the Congress-led UPA government had decided not to retaliate against Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks due to intense international pressure.
PM Modi said in his Navi Mumbai speech that the Congress needs to tell who made the decision under pressure from a foreign power.
“The country has all right to know. Congress’s weakness strengthened the terrorists. The country repeatedly has had to pay for this mistake by sacrificing lives. For us, nothing is more important than national security and the safety of our citizens,” he said.
What did P Chidambaram say?
The Congress leader has revealed that “retribution crossed my mind” but the government decided against military action.
“The whole world descended upon Delhi to tell us don’t start a war,” said Chidambaram during a recent interview. Chidambaram took over as the Union Home Minister days after the 26/11 terror attacks that claimed the lives of 175 people.
“Condoleezza Rice, who was then US Secretary of State, flew in two or three days after I took over, to meet me and the Prime Minister. And to say, ‘please don’t react’. I said this is a decision that the government will take. Without disclosing any official secret, it did cross my mind that we should do some act of retribution,” the Congress leader acknowledged.
What happened on 26/11 in Mumbai?
A group of 10 Pakistani terrorists affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out attacks on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj railway station; the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace, the Leopold Cafe, the Cama Hospital, and the Nariman House on 26 November 2008 in what later came to be known as the Mumbai attacks.
Ajmal Kasab, one of the terrorists who was caught by the Mumbai Police, was executed in 2012.
The statement has three parts, and each one of them is WRONG, terribly WRONG.
PM Modi’s remarks in Mumbai assume significance since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has frequently cited India’s reaction after the Mumbai attack as an example of the UPA’s weakness in foreign policy and security issues.
The saffron party often compares the Congress-led government’s response to its government’s response to terror attacks through surgical strikes and more – in 2016 in response to the Uri terror attack, the 2019 Balakot air strike in response to the Pulwama terror attack, and Operation Sindoor in 2025, in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
