Why did PM Modi make no mention of Pulwama in his speech given 2 hours after attack?

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari on Friday upped the ante against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked what was he doing two hours after the Pulwama terror attack.

The Pulwama terror attack took place around 3.15 pm (some reports say 3:10 pm), and PM Modi addressed a rally in Rudrapur at around 5.10 pm.

The attack was all over the news by 5 pm.

So two hours after the attack, when PM Modi addressed a rally in Rudrapur  by telephone from Corbett National Par,  nowhere did he in his speech mention about the attack nor did he ask the crowd there to observe silence.

Tewari played a Doordarshan clip of the same and interestingly, the ticker of the channel said “10 soldier or 10 CRPF Jawans have died in Pulwama”.

Further, Tewari said that it was clear that “the prime minister of India was either not informed by his office or the prime minister was incommunicado.”

Alleging incompetence on part of the BJP government, Tewari asked, “We are a nuclear state and if there is a breakdown in communication between the prime minister and his office, it has very portentous implications. That is why, this nation must know from the mouth of the prime minister, who otherwise speaks nonstop 24X7, that Mr. Prime Minister what were you doing between 03:10 pm in the afternoon and 05:10 pm in the afternoon.”

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Earlier on Thursday, Congress lambasted PM Modi and said that even after the Pulwama terror attack had been reported and was all over news, the latter was still busy shooting for a film in Jim Corbett National Park.

For 4 hours, PM Narendra Modi indulged himself in a film shoot, after a major terror attack. I have no words to express for this behaviour. There is no better example than this of Mr. Modi’s insult to our soldiers. At 3:10PM, when Pulwama attack occurred and was all over news, Mr. Modi was shooting for a film till 6:45PM in Corbett National Park,” Surjewala said while addressing a press conference in New Delhi.

However, The Times of India did a fact-check of Congress’ claims and termed them false. However, TOI’s  ‘fact-check’ is questionable as it has quoted unnamed government sources saying, “Modi did a short shoot for tourism promotion and climate change awareness with Discovery and was heading to Rudrapur for a public meeting. As the news of the attack started trickling in around 4 pm, he was making his way from Corbett to Rudrapur.”

Also, video footage on some TV channels has established that PM Modi left Corbett National Park between 6:40 and 7:30 pm that evening (February 14).

According to The Wire, Amar Ujala newspaper, also reported his departure for Rudrapur as 6:40 pm: and not 4 pm, as claimed by TOI.