UPA weak, Modi punched Pakistan in the nose: Ex-US envoy David Mulford

New Delhi: In a candid and hard-hitting video now circulating online, former US Ambassador to India, David Mulford, pulled no punches in his assessment of India’s counter-terror strategy under the UPA government and the transformative approach that followed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mulford exposed what he called the “weakness” of the previous UPA government led by the late Dr. Manmohan Singh and explained why Pakistan’s terror attacks became more brazen.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by TheNewsDrum (@thenewsdrum)

Recounting his first-hand experience from his tenure in New Delhi, Mulford shared a chilling story.

“You know, the first time I was in India, in 2005, October 26, I went out to a school outside of New Delhi to give a talk to parents. And so on that evening, I got a phone call that there had been an attack in the Sarojini market in New Delhi that night, and there were 60 some people killed in a very fiery blast, which exploded other canisters of natural gas and so on. So it was a very desperate situation.”

Mulford then explained the disturbing trend he saw during those years.

“We then looked into our intelligence that followed that, and we found that the Pakistani motivation was that the programs they had for terrorist activities in Kashmir were not producing enough headlines for the evening news and various other things, so they wanted to have a broader attack that would divide communities and destroy confidence between communities in India.”

He went on to describe how, after repeated attacks in Jammu and Kashmir stopped making national headlines, Pakistan deliberately shifted its strategy to orchestrate high-profile attacks in Indian metros.

“Their plan was to attack markets all over India, which they did with crude pipe bombs and various other things. And that led up to the railway attacks in Mumbai, and then that led up to the hotel attacks,” Mulford said, drawing a direct line from the 2005 Delhi blasts to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

When terror struck, Mulford recounted, India’s response under the UPA government was shaped more by caution than resolve.

“At that point, Manmohan Singh’s government, you know, debated whether or not to counter strike, but the reasoning was, a counter strike won’t get the people who did this. The camps are empty now. You won’t achieve anything. And if it stimulates the Pakistanis to strike back, and then we strike back… you know, won’t be long before Pakistan knows it’s going to lose and it’ll reach for the nuclear closet.”

Mulford added, “I was with him on that decision, but this time, I think Modi was right, and once he’s done that, you know, there’s nothing like punching a bully on the nose, you know, on the playground.”

He pointed out the contrast with the Modi government’s doctrine: “There’s nothing like punching a bully on the nose.”

In a powerful reminder of the past, Mulford summed up why these stories matter, saying, “Terror attacks in J&K were so common they didn’t even make news. So Pakistan began attacking Delhi, Mumbai, everywhere hoping for news coverage!”