Boat row: War of words between BJP, Congress

Congress, however, was all praise for the Coast Guard calling its intervention a “valiant action”. The party nuanced its position — complimenting the Coast Guard even while raising questions about the discrepancies in the views of various agencies — after some of its leaders felt the Congress should not be seen as attacking the men in uniform and being soft on Pakistan.

The party, however, asked the government come clean on “whether the boat was laden with explosives and was being manned by terrorists or was it carrying nefarious elements and smugglers”. It also sought to know whether the boat was blown up or was set on fire by those on board as stated by the Ministry of Defence.

“Are there contradictory and conflicting perceptions with the NTRO on one side and military intelligence, RAW and IB on the other side. What is the truth?,” Surjewala asked.

Coming down heavily on the opposition party, BJP wondered whether Congress, which it said has always politicised the terror incidents, was “planning to contest elections in Pakistan along with (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar, (mastermind of Mumbai terror attack Zaki ur Rehman) Lakhvi or (Lashker-e-Toiba founder) Hafiz Saeed.”