Accountability for Pahalgam, Chandni Chowk terror strikes not fixed: Cong's Karti Chidambaram

New Delhi, Dec 4 (PTI) Congress leader Karti P Chidambaram on Thursday took a swipe at the Centre, saying no accountability has been fixed for the Pahalgam and Chandni Chowk terror strikes that claimed multiple lives.

He was referring to the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists, in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22 and the death of 15 people in the blast near the Red Fort in Delhi on November 10.

Participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on Health Security se National Security Cess Bill, 2025, Chidambaram described the proposed legislation as "anti-federal and anti-business".

The government has not mentioned where the money is going to be spent and how much revenue is expected to be raised through the imposition of the cess, he said.

Chidambaram pointed out that the government has said the cess will be levied only on demerit goods like pan masala, and not on essential commodities, and revenue from the levy will be shared with states for spending on health schemes.

"This government is now levying a cess to strengthen health security and national security. Perhaps they were prompted by the failures at Pahalgam and Chandni Chowk, which led them to think they need to have more resources to prevent these kinds of terror strikes.

"The House is still not taken into confidence, no accountability has been fixed for the two terror strikes. I hope in this session we will get some holistic answers from the government on why Pahalgam happened and where the accountability will lie, and why the terror strike in Chandni Chowk happened," Chidambaram said.

He also claimed that every time a government raises cess on some pretext, that money is never really spent on the intended purpose. "This is not just a critique of this government; successive governments in India have raised cess and never spent on the intended purpose," the Congress leader added. PTI RAM NSD NSD