The Indian nation is in a state of shock and grief. It has been seething with anger following the April 26 planned inhuman and brutal attack on 49-year-old Sarabjit Singh of Punjab inside the notorious Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore. The Congress-led UPA Government stands charged with allowing Islamabad to bleed India and butcher Indian nationals at regular intervals and go scot-free.

Sarabjit Singh succumbed to the grievous injuries caused to him by the Pakistani criminals on Thursday, May 2, at 1.30 p.m. IST, with Pakistani authorities pulling the plug on him without informing or seeking consent from India. The April 28 intelligence reports suggested that the attack was masterminded by Lashkar-e-Toiba (Let) and Tehrik-e-Taliban (TeT). LeT of Hafiz Saeed, as everyone knows, maintains very good relations with Pakistan spy agency ISI, the Army and even the political establishment. It is, in fact, an integral part of the anti-India Pakistan war machine.

The attack on Sarabjit was calculated to annihilate him, as happened in the case of Chamel Singh of Jammu, who was brutally murdered and badly mutilated within the jail premises by Pakistani barbarians on January 15 this year. His body was handed over to his family members on March 13 at Attari International Check Post after an autopsy at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, the same day. Pakistan did this under intense pressure.

Between January and March 13, 2013, Jammu witnessed a relentless campaign against Pakistan with all sections of society demanding return of the mortal remains of Chamel Singh who was kidnapped by Pakistani soldiers when working in his small field. He was mercilessly beaten to death just before his 5-year jail term was ending.

To this day, Pakistan has refused to give a copy of his post-mortem report to the Indian High Commission and the Congress-dominated UPA regime has thought it diplomatically prudent to forget the Pakistani brutality. Remember, when doctors in the Jammu Medical College Hospital conducted his post-mortem on March 15, most of his vital parts, including his liver, were found missing. Members of Chamel Singh’s family have since been moving heaven and earth in the hope India would force Pakistan to provide a copy of the post-mortem report, but their passionate heart-rending appeals have fallen on deaf ears. That is how callous, irresponsible, indifferent and insensitive the Congress-led UPA has become.

Anyway, Sarabjit Singh, who was in deep coma in the same hospital for more than five days, was arrested, tried and awarded the death sentence on charges of causing terror attacks in Pakistan. He had crossed over to the enemy country inadvertently on August 29, 1990 in an inebriated state and was arrested by the Pakistani authorities. He was charged with carrying out “four bombings in Faislabad, Multan and Lahore”. That his life was under grave threat became clear on September 16, 2012, when he wrote a letter to his sister Dalbir Kaur and daughter Poonam that the jail authorities were “slow-poisoning and mentally torturing him”.

UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde all knew this, as intelligence agencies, including RAW, had informed them that the life of Sarabjit Singh was in danger. Even the family members of Sarabjit Singh had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi to this effect. Indeed, Sarabjit Singh himself wrote a series of letters to Sonia Gandhi in August last year informing her that “he might be killed at Kot Lakhpat Jail” and that “some officials in Pakistan were torturing him mentally with the intention of making him mentally ill or killing him”. But not one of them took cognizance of the information available with them and the result is there for all to see.

It is hardly necessary to reflect on the circumstances under which the helpless Sarabjit Singh, who remained on death row for years, was attacked within the high security Kot Lakhpat Jail and died in Jinnah Hospital, as every detail is in the public domain now. Suffice it to say that it was not only a barbarous attack on Sarabjit Singh but also a deliberate attack on the Indian State, caused with a view to taunting the Indian nation. It was an act which only sick and uncivilised nations could enact, throwing all the international norms to the wind; only the week Congress-led UPA Government could stomach this insult.

The fact that Pakistani authorities denied permission to Sarabjit Singh’s lawyer Awais Sheikh to see him in hospital and the doctors refused to give him any information about the condition of his client, should clinch the whole issue and establish that the attack on Sarabjit Singh was a part of a conspiracy hatched by those who matter in Pakistan. Sheikh, himself under threat, told reporters in Lahore on April 26 that “whatever has happened is very much disturbing and our jail authorities are responsible for that. Hope God saves Sarabjit Singh. He has been seriously hurt”.

Islamabad on April 28 also went back on its word that it would permit Indian diplomats to see Sarabjit Singh. It was double-speak at its worst – an act which clearly showed Islamabad would not stop indulging in systematic provocation. What Daljit Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh, told media persons in New Delhi on May 2 cleared all confusion and established that Sarabjit Singh was assaulted as per a meticulously worked out plan aimed at avenging the lawful hangings of Ajmal Kasab, convicted in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and Afzal Guru, convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack case. A number of terror organizations, some of which work in unison with the Pakistani establishment, Army and ISI, had demanded the head of Sarabjit Singh after the execution of Afzal Guru.     

The subsequent tragic death of Sarabjit Singh has been roundly condemned by one and all across the nation. The Congress also condemned the gory incident, but under pressure from below. It shed crocodile tears. Let’s focus on the Congress party and the response the gory despicable act evoked from Congress ministers, including the Prime Minister.  

Sonia Gandhi did not utter a word against the barbarity. On April 27, she addressed an election rally in Karnataka, attacked the BJP, talked about secularism and demanded votes for her party. Not one word of solidarity with the wailing family of Sarabjit Singh or on the gory attack.

The Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, too, did not utter a word against Pakistan, though he did visit the family and attend the state funeral extended by the Akali Government. He may have thought it politically prudent not to utter a word against Pakistan in case it annoyed the minority community and upset his political applecart. It was a bizarre situation.  

All Congress spokespersons, without exception, who participated in private TV news channels, both English and Hindi, on April 26, 27 and 28, failed to censure Pakistan and condemn the barbaric act. Instead, they condemned the BJP leadership for behaving in ‘a most irresponsible manner’ and seeking to ‘communalise’ the situation to make political capital.

Most of them belonged to the minority community, and virtually spoke for and on behalf of Pakistan, telling co-panelists, including those belonging to the BJP and the CPI, and other impartial non-political panelists that “Pakistan is our immediate neighbour”, that “we must act responsibly while dealing with Islamabad”, that “international relations are not guided by emotions and jingoism”, that “we must not make out an issue out of the Pakistan’s refusal to provide a copy of Chamel Singh’s post-mortem”, and that “we must not do anything that has the potential of embittering further the already rather bitter relations with Pakistan”.

The substance of their whole nasty formulation was that such things happen and that it would be wrong to hold the Government of India responsible for the attack on Sarabjit Singh.

Some Congress spokespersons even questioned the motives of the TV anchors and private news channels, saying the manner in which they were debating the attack on Sarabjit Singh was not in the best interests of the country. So much so, they shamelessly brought into the debate the Parliament terror attack case to counter the BJP panelists and others who labelled the Congress-led UPA as the ‘most incompetent and irresponsible’ regime that was in “a deep coma”.

The CPI sprang a big surprise on April 27 when secretary Atul Anjan said, “it is the Congress and the UPA Government, and not Sarabjit Singh, who were in a deep coma”, that “the attack on him was, in fact, was an attack on India” and that “it would be dangerous to believe Pakistan”.

The fact is that Congress spokespersons, who always speak for and on behalf of Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, rubbed salt on the wounds of the Sarabjit Singh’s family in their desperate bid to counter the BJP and other sensitive parties, which were only urging the Union Government to muster courage and avenge the attack on Sarabjit Singh through diplomatic and other means.

As for the response of the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Foreign Minister, it was as disgusting as it was outrageous and insensitive. When questioned by reporters on the sidelines of a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on April 27, the Prime Minister only said: “yes, it is very sad, some inmates attacked him in jail. I think this is a very sad development”. That’s all. Underline the words “I think”.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who, on January 20, 2013, publicly accused the BJP and RSS of running “Hindu terror camps” and “targeting the Muslims whenever any terror attack takes place anywhere in India”, instead of sharing the grief and agony of the family and reprimanding Pakistan for the brutal attack, chose to target Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. “Modi Ji can speak anything, who will stop him? But anybody speaking without knowing the facts is wrong”.

Shinde made this ridiculous statement in the afternoon of April 27, after Modi accused the UPA of letting India down again and again. “We cannot look at the attack on Sarabjit in isolation. Incidents such as the Chinese incursion illustrate the government’s incompetence … Incidents like legal battle on Italian Marines or beheading of Indian soldiers or China’s misadventure over our land or Sarabjit are proof (of failure),” he had said. Modi dubbed the Congress-led UPA as “weak” and lamented that it has suffered a “total blackout” in its foreign policy.

As for Salman Khurshid, known for his soft approach towards Pakistan, he did not utter a word till May 2. His Deputy Praneet Kaur told a news channel on April 26 that the “Indian High Commission has sought consular access” and that “as soon as we get a response, we will act”. It was not an official statement.

All this only serves to demonstrate that the Congress party and Congress ministers do not speak for India. They function as spokespersons of Pakistan. Even a superficial look at Indian foreign policy vis-à-vis Pakistan post-May 2004 would be enough to draw the conclusion that the Congress has ceased to be a party of India. It is a matter of deep shame.