Pulwama: Modi Took 3 Hrs To React. First Shoot, Rally, Then Tweet

Why did Modi address rally after Pulwama Attack? Didn’t he know or did he choose not to speak despite knowing?

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/The Quint)

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of continuing with a photo-shoot even after the car-bombing in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama took place on the afternoon of 14 February.

He tweeted on Friday, 22 February, “Even three hours after the news of the martyrdom of 40 soldiers broke, the ‘Prime Time Minister’ continued to shoot a film. Even as the country and the martyr’s families were drowned in an ocean of pain, he (PM Modi) continued to laugh in his photo-shoot.”

The Congress president also shared pictures of PM Modi at the photo-shoot in Jim Corbett.

In one of the pictures, PM Modi can be seen posing in front of a camera and in two other pictures he can be seen riding on a motorboat.

Gandhi’s combative tweet comes a day after Congress media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala held a press conference in which he showed pictures of PM Modi at the photo-shoot.

This clearly shows the Congress’ desire to escalate the issue and pin the BJP down on the Pulwama attack.

The Congress’ attacks have brought focus on one question: What did PM Modi do just after the car-bomb detonated in Pulwama, killing 40 CRPF personnel?

The answer lies somewhere between the Congress’ allegations and the BJP’s defence that the PM did nothing wrong. There are two sets of evidence we can examine to piece together what PM Modi did that day – the pictures shared by the Congress and the media reports on 14 February, the day of the attack.

The Pictures Don’t Tell The Whole Story

At least one of the pictures – of Modi riding a motorboat – was taken before the Pulwama attack took place.

A BJP social media volunteer from Uttarakhand had tweeted that picture at 1:52 PM on 14 February, which was a little before the Pulwama attack.

However, the picture of Modi posing in front of a camera seems to have been taken later. The light has definitely faded, either due to the time of the day or due to the weather. This could possibly have been after the Pulwama attack took place.

Media Coverage of What Modi Did On 14 Feb

The more significant bit of evidence comes from media coverage from that day. Based on a Press Trust of India report and other media sources, we can try and piece together what PM Modi did on 14 February.

7 AM: PM Modi landed at Dehradun’s Jolly Grant Airport. Due to poor weather conditions, his departure for Jim Corbet got delayed.

11:15 AM: PM Modi leaves for Jim Corbett by helicopter.

He first reached Kalagarh, one of the gates of the sanctuary and from there he went to Dhikala where he visited the forest tracks.

He also visited the forest tracks and forest guest house at Khinnauli.

PM Modi announced the launch of a tiger safari at Pankhrau, between Kotdwar and Kalagarh.

In all PM Modi is said to have spent around four hours at the Jim Corbett sanctuary. It was during this period that he is said to have shot for a documentary.

3:10 PM: Car-bomb detonates at Pulwama, news begins pouring in soon after.

4 PM: PM Modi leaves Jim Corbett. He was supposed to address a rally at Rudrapur, but according to Doordarshan and PTI, it got cancelled due to bad weather.

5:10 PM: Modi begins addressing the rally at Rudrapur through telephone, makes no mention of the Pulwama attack. Interestingly, even Doordarshan, which was telecasting PM Modi’s speech, ran a ticker informing about the killing of the CRPF personnel in Pulwama.

Modi addressed a rally in Rudrapur through phone even as news of the killing of CRPF personnel kept pouring in(Photo Courtesy: Doordarshan News screegrab)

6:46 PM: Modi tweets condemning the Pulwama Attack, over three and a half hours after it took place.

What We Know and Questions That Remain Unanswered

Fact: PM Modi was at Jim Corbett when the Pulwama Attack took place and news began pouring in.

Questions:

• Was Modi at the documentary-shooting when the attack took place?
• Was he informed of the attack?
• If yes, did he continue shooting the documentary even after coming to know of the attack?
• Why was there a delay in PM’s reaction to the attack?

Fact: PM Modi addressed a rally in Rudrapur through telephone at around 5:10 PM, around two hours after the attack. He made no mention of the attack in his speech and instead focussed on “congratulating” the people. As he was addressing the rally through mobile phone, it is clear that he was not unreachable, as some had claimed.

Questions:

• Did PM Modi know about the attack before he addressed the rally?
• If yes, why did he go ahead with the rally?
• And if he didn’t know about the terror attack, why was this information withheld from him?
• Addressing a political rally immediately after such a heinous terror attack is callous. Who is to blame for this – the PM for going ahead with the rally despite knowing about such an attack or the home minister and NSA for not telling him?

Fact: The first public statement from Modi on the terror attack came in the form of a tweet at 6.46 PM, over three hours after the terror attack and over 90 minutes after his rally in Rudrapur.

Question:

• Was a political rally more important than giving a response to the public on the terror attack?

Damage Control

There have been three stories that have appeared since yesterday, that contest the Congress’ version.

• An India Today report claims that PM Modi did not have food after he heard of the attack. This is in response to the Congress’ claim that the PM had snacks even after hearing of the attack.
• Two news channels on Thursday, ran stories that PM Modi is angry with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval for not telling him about the attack. But the channels stopped running the stories soon after.

• The Economic Times reported on Friday that PM Modi left Jim Corbett around 4 and he was angry at being informed late about the terror attack. The report also says that he cancelled his Rudrapur rally because of the terror attack.

Though the stories make the situation look a little more favourable to PM Modi than it is, there are still several loopholes.

• NewsX and The Economic Times all claim that there was a delay in informing Modi about the attack. NewsX blames Ajit Doval, The Economic Times blames no one in particular.
• If any of the above are true, what does it say about the government if the PM doesn’t come to know of such a serious terror attack?
• Doordarshan and PTI reports on 14 February clearly say that PM Modi’s rally in Rudrapur was cancelled because of bad weather and not the terror attack, contrary to what The Economic Times has claimed.
• If indeed PM was so angry about the terror attack, why did he address the rally through phone? Why not cancel it altogether?
• And if for some reason he couldn’t cancel it, what prevented him from expressing his anger to the people during the rally?

While the Congress’ photographic evidence may not be foolproof and its claim that he had snacks might just be political rhetoric, the government has a lot to answer in this episode. By examining the various scenarios, there are only three possibilities:

1. Top government functionaries failed to communicate with each other on a terror attack of this magnitude, therefore displaying callousness.
2. The PM came to know of the terror attack on time but continued with his photo-shoot and the rally in Rudrapur (albeit by telephone), displaying shocking insensitivity.
3. The PM didn’t know about the terror attack as he was unreachable in Jim Corbett. But even after he came to know, he went on to address a rally in which he made no mention of the terror attack. Therefore, in this situation, the government displayed both insensitivity and callousness.