Overview

• Sambit Patra alleged Sonia Gandhi instructed then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram not to take kinetic action against Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks.
• Gaurav Bhatia said the UPA became a puppet of foreign powers and claimed Sonia Gandhi held the remote control over the Manmohan Singh government.
• News reports of Chidambaram’s interview state that Condoleezza Rice urged India to ‘please don’t react’ after 26/11, though Chidambaram later said he never claimed the US ‘stopped’ India.
• Patra cited Natwar Singh’s autobiography to claim Congress consulted the United States on cabinet appointments during the UPA era.
• The exchange features press conferences and past accounts rather than new evidence, revisiting the UPA’s diplomatic response to the 2008 Lashkar-e-Taiba attacks that killed over 170 people.