At all-party meet, leaders seek decisive action

A DAY AFTER it announced a raft of measures against Pakistan in response to the terror attack in Pahalgam which left 26 civilians dead, the government on Thursday shared its assessment of the emerging situation with leaders of political parties, including key Opposition figures, in an attempt to forge a broad domestic political consensus on the matter.

- SWARAJ BAGGONKAR

Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and external affairs minister S Jaishankar — all members of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) which decided the retaliatory steps against Pakistan, including putting on hold the Indus Waters Treaty — attended the meeting.

It was a signal that the government was keen that the political class speak in one voice as it plans the next retaliatory steps. On Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be going to Srinagar to visit the injured.

Just hours ahead of the all-party meeting held by the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a meeting in Bihar that "India will identify, track, and punish every terrorist, and their backers (and)... will pursue them to the ends of the Earth".

From the government side, apart from the CCS members — Shah visited the terror site near Pahalgam the day after the attack — parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju and health minister and BJP president JP Nadda were present.

Apart from the Leaders of Opposition of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, respectively, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, floor leaders of various parties were present at the meeting. They included the Samajwadi Party's Ramgopal Yadav, the Trinamool Congress's Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, the DMK's Tiruchi Siva, the Aam Aadmi Party's Sanjay Singh, the BJD's Sasmit Patra, the RJD's Prem Chand Gupta, the AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi, and the NCP(SP)'s Supriya Sule.

NDA allies Shiv Sena and TDP were also present, represented by Shrikant Shinde and Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, respectively.