BJP-Congress Clash Over "Home-Grown Terrorists" Comment After Delhi Red Fort Attack

New Delhi:

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's remarks regarding "home-grown terrorists" has ignited a major political confrontation between the Congress and the BJP following the terror attack near Delhi's Red Fort. BJP leaders, who had remained largely silent about Congress's initial allegations of intelligence failure, have now spoken out strongly against Chidambaram.

"The Congress is giving soft support to terrorists," stated BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari.

BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi emphasized that terrorists are "beasts who need to be killed" and said, "When terrorists get hurt, these people (the Congress) start screaming. I don't know why they talk like spokespersons of terrorists".

"Terrorists are terrorists. It does not matter what kind of classification the Congress leadership would like to give it," remarked senior BJP leader Nalin Kohli.

"In the fight against terror there are only two sides. Those who stand with the terrorists and those who stand against it. Mr Chidambaram and his party will do well to explain to the victims on whose side they are standing to come up with such an apologist kind of narrative or paint such a tale of victimhood," he further stated.

Neeraj Kumar of BJP ally Janata Dal United expressed, "I wonder what has happened to the Congress leaders. A new language for terrorism? Foreign and home-grown terrorists? A terrorist is a terrorist".

Shortly after Sunday's explosion that killed eight people and injured approximately 20, Congress had suggested a significant intelligence failure. The party also criticized the government for allegedly delaying the classification of the blast as a terror attack.

Yesterday, P Chidambaram posted on X, questioning what circumstances "turn Indian citizens -- even educated persons -- into terrorists".

"I have maintained before and after the Pahalgam terror attack that there are two kinds of terrorists -- foreign-trained infiltrated terrorists and home-grown terrorists. I said so in Parliament during the debate on Operation Sindoor. I was mocked and trolled for the reference to home-grown terrorists," his post stated.

"However, I must say that the government observed a discreet silence because the government knows that there are home-grown terrorists too. The point of this tweet is we should ask ourselves what are the circumstances that turn Indian citizens -- even educated persons -- into terrorists," he added.

The statement has also sparked debate about whether education influences proper decision-making, as three suspects are practicing doctors. The investigation has expanded to include Javed Ahmed Siddiqui, founder and managing trustee of Al-Falah University in Faridabad, which employed two of the three main suspects.

"The Delhi blast has once again proved that some diseases cannot be cured by education," said Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. "If they have bad intentions, they will make even more bombs if they are educated. There is no guarantee that they will do good things if they are educated," he added.

"It does not matter which socioeconomic background they come from. Ultimately, what matters is that terrorists take innocent lives, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Jews. And these terrorists did exactly that. They failed their country, they failed their religion and they failed humanity," said Nalin Kohli.