The Congress party loves to present itself as the moral compass of Indian democracy but its actual record on terrorism tells a far darker story. Time and again Congress leaders have chosen appeasement over accountability softness over strength and political calculations over national security. The latest affidavit by jailed JKLF terrorist Yasin Malik has only added to this disturbing legacy exposing how deeply Congress entangled itself with separatists and terror sympathizers. Yasin Malik’s revelation that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally thanked him after he met 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan shines a spotlight on the UPA’s dangerous gamble of legitimizing killers under the false banner of peace.
Yasin Malik who is accused of murdering four IAF officers kidnapping Rubiya Saeed and overseeing the brutal ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits claims that he was nudged by senior Indian intelligence officials to meet jihadist leaders like Hafiz Saeed during a 2006 visit to Pakistan. More shocking is his claim that Manmohan Singh after being briefed hailed him as the father of the non violent movement in Kashmir. For lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits driven out of their ancestral homes at gunpoint such words from a sitting Prime Minister are nothing less than betrayal. It demonstrates the extent to which Congress governments were willing to whitewash the crimes of separatists to create a false image of progress.
This episode was not a one off mistake but part of a much broader Congress pattern. In the 1990s successive Congress backed dispensations allowed separatists like Yasin Malik to travel abroad and present anti India propaganda on international platforms. While Kashmiri Pandits were being slaughtered and driven from their homes Congress governments chose to provide separatists with respectability and legitimacy. Instead of defending victims they amplified the voices of those who had caused their suffering. The policy of dialogue at any cost became the hallmark of Congress’s Kashmir strategy a policy that handed terrorists the upper hand while demoralizing India’s security forces.
Even outside Kashmir Congress’s record remains deeply troubling. Take the Batla House encounter of 2008 where brave Delhi Police officers neutralized Indian Mujahideen terrorists responsible for serial bomb blasts. Instead of honoring the sacrifice of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma who laid down his life in the operation Congress leaders cast doubt on the police’s integrity. Sonia Gandhi was reported to have cried not for Sharma but for the terrorists. Later leaders like Salman Khurshid infamously described Batla House as a blot on the nation’s conscience. Such misplaced sympathy for killers and disdain for martyrs sends only one message Congress’s heart bleeds not for India’s victims but for those who seek to tear the nation apart.
The Congress’s mishandling of terror is equally visible in its response to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Instead of showing iron resolve and rallying the world against Pakistan the UPA leadership allowed the focus to be diluted. Astonishingly at the very moment when global attention was on Lashkar e Taiba and Pakistan’s ISI Congress leaders began shifting the discourse to Hindu terror in unrelated contexts. This not only confused the narrative but also provided Pakistan a convenient smokescreen. The real masterminds in Rawalpindi and Muridke watched with glee as India’s ruling party muddied its own waters.
Congress’s softness toward extremist organizations predates even these events. From soft pedalling on the banned Students Islamic Movement of India to consistently questioning police actions during encounters Congress has acted as a brake on India’s war against terror. Each time the police cracked down on terror networks a Congress leader was ready to plant doubts in the public’s mind. This steady erosion of confidence in India’s security forces only emboldened the enemies of the state.
Even the infamous release of terrorists during the 1999 Kandahar hijacking though executed under an NDA government had its seeds in Congress’s earlier willingness to compromise with terrorists. Congress was quick to criticize the Vajpayee government but its own decades long record had already normalized the dangerous idea that national security could be traded for political expediency. From hosting separatists to giving them a free pass internationally Congress had long been guilty of setting the precedent of talks over toughness.
The cumulative effect of all these choices has been devastating for India. Kashmiri Pandits remain scattered in exile their wounds never healed. Brave officers like Mohan Chand Sharma are remembered by the people but dishonored by the political establishment of that time. Terror victims across the nation have had to live with the knowledge that their government was willing to weep for their killers but unwilling to act decisively for justice.
What stands exposed is a Congress culture of misplaced compassion and deliberate appeasement. Rahul Gandhi today may lecture the nation about unity and peace but the house he inherits is built on foundations of compromise and cowardice. His party’s record from Yasin Malik’s shocking claims to Sonia Gandhi’s tears for Batla House terrorists from downplaying Pakistan’s hand in 26/11 to giving platforms to separatists in the 1990s shows a consistent pattern of siding with the enemies of the Indian state.
India’s fight against terrorism has always been long and painful but the burden was made heavier by a Congress leadership that often chose to stand on the wrong side of history. It is a party that showed tears for terrorists and silence for victims gratitude for separatists and suspicion for soldiers. The Yasin Malik affidavit is not just about one meeting it is a mirror held up to decades of Congress’s dangerous indulgence of terror in the name of politics. The question is not whether Congress will answer for this record. The question is how much longer will India pay the price for Congress’s tears.
