BJP, Congress spar over who set ball rolling for listing of Jaish chief Masood Azhar

READ | Delhi’s dossier on Jaish chief Masood Azhar: Pathankot to Pulwama, his fingerprints

“If India wins, Indians win, but there are friends in Opposition who are not celebrating it as they may have to pay a political price for it,” Jaitley said. Saying that the FATF has already put Pakistan on its “grey list”, he said: “There is a meeting of FATF in mid-May… We will put all the facts before it… there is strict scrutiny. We would want that… Pakistan should be downgraded.”

While Defence Minister Sitharaman said this was the outcome of “persistent efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”, Jaitley said India had made several attempts in the past — in 2009, 2014 and 2016 — but China had raised “technical objections”.

Read | Jaish’s journey: Parliament attack to Pulwama

Congress spokesperson Rajeev Shukla said the dossiers handed over to the UN by the previous Manmohan Singh government had set the foundation for the UN’s decision.

“This government’s problem is that they just run to take credit for everything… They indulge in chest thumping for everything. Has this happened for the first time? You must remember that it was the UPA government which got a bigger terrorist (Lashkar-e-Taiba chief) Hafiz Saeed declared as a global terrorist. Not just him….Be it Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Haji Muhammad Ashraf…the UPA government got four terrorists declared as global terrorists,” he said.

READ | Oppn welcomes UN move, Congress takes a swipe at govt

The Congress also asked the government to reply to Pakistan’s claim that Kashmir and Pulwama were delinked in the JeM chief’s listing.

“The listing and the decision are not a bio-data of Masood Azhar. They don’t have to give his entire background and each and every activity. The core issue is that he has been declared as an international terrorist, he and his country will have to face the consequences,” said Jaitley.

“Obviously the world community has been persuaded by all the material that India has put forward and circulated. Even persons with elementary understanding of international diplomacy will tell you that the aggression and aggressive posture of some global powers in getting him listed and the change of attitude of China has certainly been impacted by the recent developments which include both Pulwama and the expose of Pakistan post-Balakot, because it was Azhar’s camp which was destroyed in Balakot,” Jaitley said.

Also read | Freed as Harkat man after Kandahar, Masood Azhar set up Jaish, became India’s nemesis-in-chief

Meanwhile, in an interview to The Hindustan Times, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said “multiple surgical strikes took place during our tenure too” but military operations were meant for strategic deterrence and giving a befitting reply to anti-India forces rather than being used for vote-garnering exercises. “In the past 70 years, a government in power never had to hide behind the valour of our armed forces. Such attempts to politicise our forces are shameful and unacceptable,” he said.

While Jaitley said these strikes were “unknown and invisible”, the Congress listed what it called six anti-terror surgical strikes carried out during UPA rule — Bhattal sector in Poonch (June 19, 2008); Sharda sector, across Neelam River Valley, in Kel (August 30-September 1, 2011); Sawan Patra checkpost (January 6, 2013); Nazapir sector (July 27-28, 2013); Neelam Valley (August 6, 2013); and one on December 23, 2013.

The Congress also listed two surgical strikes carried out under the previous BJP-led NDA government of A B Vajpayee.