PM continued shooting for documentary after Pulwama attack, alleges Congress
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued shooting for a film in the Corbett National Park for his "propaganda and publicity" till the evening of February 14 despite the Pulwama attack taking place in the afternoon that day, the Congress on Thursday alleged, citing reports in a section of the media.
There was no immediate reaction from the Prime Minister's Office and the BJP over the allegations.
The opposition party also accused BJP president Amit Shah of "politicization of terrorism" in his speech in Assam following the attack in which 40 CRPF jawans died after a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the paramilitary force's convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama.
Shah, while addressing a public rally at Lakhimpur in Assam, had said that the sacrifices of the 40 CRPF personnel will not go in vain as there is a BJP government at the Centre now and it, unlike the previous Congress dispensation, will not "compromise" on any security issue.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, addressing a press conference, launched an all-out attack on the government and the prime minister over the Pulwama terror strike.
In his hunger for power, the prime minister has forgotten "raj dharma" (duty of governance), he alleged.
Citing media reports in Hindi news papers, Surjewala gave a timeline of events saying the the terror attack happened at 3:10 PM on February 14 with the Congress reacting at 5:15 PM.
"The prime minister also knew about it, yet the PM, a person who claims himself to be a pseudo nationalist, continues to shoot a film (for Discovery channel) for self propagation in Corbett National Park in Ramnagar," he claimed.
He alleged that the prime minister continued to "enjoy boat rides" with the camera crew and later ensured that there is slogan shouting by BJP people in his favour there.
"The prime minister continues to eat chai, samosas at seven o' clock at government expense in a PWD guest house when every single Indian household didn't eat their food," the Congress spokesperson said.
On one hand the country was picking up the "pieces of our martyrs", on the other hand the prime minister was doing his "propaganda and publicity", he claimed.
"Can such conduct be expected from the prime minister of a country. The prime minister should have been chairing the cabinet committee on security immediately and should have taken action, instead of shooting films," he said.
Surjewala said that the Congress party had shown restrain as directed by party president Rahul Gandhi, but it was important to raise issues of such conduct that "insults martyrs".
"The Congress party and the entire nation stands united with our armed forces as also our government in every step that they take in tackling Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. We are determined in that resolve even today," he said.
The Congress leader said that questions must be asked about the gross intelligence failure of this government and on the "priorities of a prime minister who on a sensitive time like this has gone on a foreign tour to South Korea instead of tackling terrorism".
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
