Rise in infiltration cause for concern: Congress

Gogoi took on the Prime Minister for making tall claims and said he has been talking of terrorism at various local, regional and international fora making terrorism a pet subject of his.

“So despite having its own government in the state (J&K), despite having a vociferous Defence Ministry, there have been certain changes recently and despite having a PM who has made counter insurgency and terrorism a priority; then who is accountable for the rise in infiltration and net infiltration at our borders?” he asked.

“The question is who is accountable? It is a serious issue no doubt but accountability has to be fixed and we see that the BJP-PDP government is there in the state,” the Congress leader said, adding that the Defence Ministry speaks boldly about itself “as if it taught the Army soldiers how to hold the gun, shoot a gun”.

He said the government data shows that in 2014, there were 222 people who tried to infiltrate. In 2015, it was 121, while in 2016, it rose to 371.

The Congress leader said the data presented in Lok Sabha on infiltration painted a “serious picture” and accountability needs to be fixed.

“We want our borders to be fully secure. We want the government to take serious steps and match rhetoric with action because the facts show the opposite of all its talk.

“The net infiltration has only increased, vulnerability of our army bases and camps and threat to Indian citizens has only increased,” he said.