Four Times Narendra Modi Showed That Criticising the Union Government on National Security is Okay

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's comments on the Narendra Modi government’s handling of national security affairs after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 civilians were killed was met with livid responses from the Bharatiya Janata Party and its leadership.

After over a month of cautious pause, Gandhi had posted a video of his speech on X. In it, he doubled down on his charge that the Modi government had agreed to a ceasefire with Pakistan only under pressure from US President Donald Trump. “Now, I know the BJP and RSS people very well. You put them under pressure, they chicken out and run away. For instance, when Trump called Modi and told him, ‘Narendra, Surrender,’ he readily complied,” Gandhi said. “They [Americans] didn't make a call to Indira Gandhi; instead, they had sent the 7th Fleet. She still did what she did.”

BJP reacted by saying that Gandhi was the "leader of Pakistani propaganda." BJP’s national president, J.P. Nadda, said that Gandhi's remarks are “nothing short of treason.”

Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesman of the BJP, Sudhanshu Trivedi, said, “Even Pakistan and Masood Azhar didn't use this language.”

Congress responded by saying that an attack on Modi was not an attack against India or the armed forces. But the outrage was not limited to the two parties but also included a section of the media.

The Hindu Group's director Malini Parthasarathy asked, “How long does this country have to hear the juvenile rants of this self-hating politician who puts down India at the drop of a hat? It’s not Modi he’s belittling but India.”

Columnist Tavleen Singh wrote that Rahul Gandhi’s comments are very irresponsible and are akin to a ‘schoolyard spat’.

Gandhi's comments might appear radical at a time when opposition leaders have to toe the government line for fear of the use of government agencies and more, but not too long ago, it was not really thought treasonous for an opposition leader to question the government of the day on national security matters. In fact, no lesser a leader than Narendra Modi has done it multiple times as chief minister of Gujarat, when the country was governed by the United Progressive Alliance under Manmohan Singh. 

Here are some of those times.

1) 'Drown and die', 'red eyes' and more: China

Modi had notably asked Manmohan Singh to show "lal aankh (red eyes)" to China – a line which the Congress and several commentators have since turned on Modi. 

But there were other instances when Modi attacked the UPA government on national security issues.

In 2008, at a public function, Modi asked, "How is it that the Prime Minister gets sleep when we lose so many jawans to terrorism every day?"

In August 2012, speaking at Sardar Patel University, Modi had attacked Singh’s "weak-kneed approach" to fighting terror. He said that the Union government’s policy was creating impunity for terrorists. 

In a 2013 speech questioning the alleged failure of the Singh government to protect India's borders from Chinese intrusions, Pakistan’s attacks along the Line of Control, and Bangladeshi infiltration, Modi said, “Shame on those running my country’s government; you should be ashamed. You are rubbing salt on the wounds, pouring acid on the pain of 1.25 billion Indians.”

“You will be shocked to know that the ‘Delhi Sultanate’ is ignoring the security of India because it is submerged in ‘vote bank’ politics,” he said. The ‘vote bank’ reference – a dog-whistling effort targeting Muslims – features in many of Modi's videos critiquing Singh and the Congress over national security.

Recently, Union home minister Amit Shah used it to attack Mamata Banerjee and said, “Didi opposed Operation Sindoor to please her Muslim vote bank.

Attacking Manmohan’s handling of the Bangladesh border, in the same speech, Modi had said, “Our soldiers stationed at the Bangladesh border – if they try to stop a Bangladeshi infiltrator and the infiltrator does not stop – the Indian army and BSF personnel have been stopped from using any weapons.”

On Chinese intrusions, he had said, “China, being an infiltrator, needed to return to its own land, but I am shocked that the Delhi government made an agreement where the Indian Army was also forced to retreat from its own land. This is the misfortune of our country that the government made this decision…”

Referring again to Singh, he had said, “Brothers and sisters, how can the leader of a sovereign nation, a government of 1.25 billion people, provide security to the common citizens of India with such decisions?”

In another 2013 clip, Modi is heard saying at a public address, “Drown, drown and die, the people who run the government of my country.”