Congress’s Pranab Mukherjee Rejected Demand For Military Response After 26/11 Attacks: Rajnath Singh

Last Updated:July 28, 2025, 16:36 IST

Rajnath Singh: "I believe that if the government back then had taken decisive and tough steps like 2016 and 2019, Pakistan's strategic calculus could have been altered."

Rajnath Singh (left) spoke about Pranab Mukherjee who was the EAM at the time of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. (PTI File)

Pranab Mukherjee, then External Affairs Minister, had rejected the demand for a military response after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in the Lok Sabha on Monday. This was said to expose why the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) did not act against Pakistan after the terror attacks.

Singh said: “Pranab Mukherjee has written in his book ‘The Coalition Years’ that when the Mumbai attacks happened, India had evidence that the terrorists came from Karachi port. No one in the world was believing the excuse of Pakistan’s ‘non-state actors’. He has written, and I quote – “Amid heated debates within the Cabinet, there was a demand for military intervention which I rejected"."

Singh also quoted a senior officer of the Indian Foreign Service who had confirmed in his book that a high-level meeting took place immediately after the Mumbai attacks, in which then Foreign Minister Mukherjee was asked, “What should be done?"

The book said Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon suggested that India could launch a cruise missile attack on the Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters in Muridke. “Hearing this, Mukherjee took off his glasses, cleaned them, and thanked all the officers before concluding the meeting," Singh said, quoting from this book.

Singh also said that the government at that time did what it thought was right. “But I believe that if the government back then had taken decisive and tough steps like the 2016 (surgical strike) and 2019 (air strike), Pakistan’s strategic calculus could have been altered. A powerful and decisive action could have proven to be a significant disincentive for Pakistan and its army-sponsored terrorist organisations," Singh said.

Singh also castigated the UPA saying that in 2008, such a major terrorist incident took place in Mumbai, yet the government at that time, far from taking effective action, did not even see condemnation of that incident on many global platforms. “Just take a look at the documents of the BRICS summit held after that incident; there is no mention of the Mumbai terrorist attacks anywhere," Singh told the Parliament.

The Defence Minister compared this to 2025 after the Pahalgam terror attack when he had to go to China for the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting.

“The declaration being prepared there was diluting India’s stand on terrorism. We clearly stated that unless India’s stand on the issue of terrorism is included, we will not sign any joint statement. And because of this, no Joint Statement was issued there," Singh said.

He said the outcome of this was that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the BRICS meeting in Brazil, in the presence of China, the joint declaration that emerged condemned the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir. “In other words, India’s stance was finally accepted. This was the first time in the history of the BRICS summit that a terrorist incident in Jammu and Kashmir was openly condemned," Singh said.

Aman Sharma

Aman Sharma, Executive Editor - National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Office....Read More

Aman Sharma, Executive Editor - National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Office....

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