The winter session of parliament in October 2008 came under intense criticism from the Left parties and the BJP to demand a full-fledged winter session instead of what was seen as the UPA to having "scuttled the voice of Parliament" by bringing down the sittings to a record low of 30 days in the year. The tensions between the UPA and the opposition parties became evident at an all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha speaker
Somnath Chatterjee when the leader of opposition,
L. K. Advani questioned the status, timing and schedule of the current session of parliament.
M. Karunanidhi had said he felt "let down" by the "lukewarm" response of the centre and had demanded amendments in the resolution on Sri Lanka - • One of the amendments was to "declare that
genocide and
war crimes had been committed and inflicted on the
Sri Lankan Tamils by the
Sri Lanka Army and the administrators". • The second one was "establishment of a credible and independent international commission of investigation in a time-bound manner into the allegations of war crimes,
crimes against humanity, violations of international
International human rights law, violations of
international humanitarian law and crime of genocide against the Tamils". Karunanidhi said Parliament should adopt the resolution incorporating these two amendments. Between 2005 to 2008 and 2010 to 2013, the UPA faced sustained criticism, due to the failure to prevent several terrorist attacks nationwide. The UPA Government repealed the
Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 in 2004, which was criticized by then Gujarat Chief Minister and Future Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, as it weakened India’s counterterrorism framework and reduced the powers available to law-enforcement agencies. Subsequently, several terror attacks took place in 2008 across cities like
Jaipur,
Bangalore,
Ahmedabad and
Delhi, led by the
Indian Mujahideen under support from Pakistan-based
ISI, as well as the
2005 Delhi bombings,
2006 Mumbai train bombings and
2006 Varanasi bombings; allies of UPA such as
Samajwadi Party were also criticized for labeling the
Batla House encounter as fake and supporting the accused arrested by
Delhi Police, which occurred less than a week after the
Delhi bombings in September 2008. During the
November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, when 10 Pakistani terrorists from the banned terror outfit
Lashkar-e-Taiba under support from
Pakistan Army and
ISI, came from the sea route and targeted the city from 26 to 29 November 2008, the UPA Government faced widespread outrage from citizens and leaders of opposition for intelligence failures as well as delay in deploying
NSG commandos, who neutralized 8 of the 10 terrorists at the
Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the
Oberoi Trident hotel, and the
Chabad House. Furthermore,
Congress leader
Digvijaya Singh, faced heavy criticism for launching a book which mentioned that the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was somehow linked to the attack, despite credible evidence and confessions from
Ajmal Kasab, the only gunman who was captured by
Mumbai Police; Singh, along with several other UPA leaders, was also publicly criticized for coining the terms Hindu Terror and Saffron Terror. The 2008 attacks in Mumbai subsequently led to resignation of several leaders like
Vilasrao Deshmukh,
R. R. Patil and
Shivraj Patil, on the grounds of moral responsibility as well as for making insensitive statements in the aftermath. Additionally, the UPA faced condemnation from opposition leaders and commentators for ruling out military action against Pakistan, with critics describing the response as insufficiently strong. His comments were slammed from some quarters of the Indian political spectrum, who criticised him for equating the Mumbai attacks with those in Afghanistan and called it an insult to those killed in the blasts. The ineptness towards national security, the insensitive statements made by Congress leadership following the terror attack, and the inaction against Pakistan sponsored terrorist groups was one of the few factors that led to the UPA suffering a major defeat in the 2014 General elections. The UPA was criticised for its alleged involvement scams such as the
Commonwealth Games Scam of 2010, the
2G spectrum case, the
Indian coal allocation scam, and the
AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal. Apart from the above-mentioned scams, the UPA has been under intense fire for the alleged doles handed out to the son-in-law of the Gandhi family,
Robert Vadra, by UPA-run state governments. The UPA was also rebuked for shielding and not prosecuting RJD leader and Railway Minister during UPA 1
Lalu Prasad Yadav, for his involvement in several corruption cases, including the fodder scam case as well as creating Jungle Raj in Bihar between 1990 and 2005, which affected economic and social standing of the state. Additionally, the UPA faced serious criticism on mishandling the national carrier
Air India, which led to its financial crisis in 2006–07, before being sold to the Tata group in 2022. The UPA Government has been severely condemned for mishandling the aftermath of the
2012 Delhi gang rape case. As per
Firstpost media house, the Government had failed to act positively or give credible assurances to the protesters, and instead used police force and lathi-charging against protesters, while pushing the media out of the scene, and shutting down metro rail stations. In the aftermath of the incident, while the Government passed an
amendment of the laws against rape and sexual assault, which ensured stricter punishments for rape convicts, the amendment was criticized and labeled as an eyewash, as the changes in the laws failed to serve as a deterrent to rising incidents of rape. Furthermore, several key suggestions were ignored, including the criminalisation of
marital rape and trying military personnel accused of sexual offences under criminal law, which was severely condemned by several women's safety activists. The UPA was also slammed for inaction against political leaders such as
Digvijaya Singh and
Mulayam Singh Yadav for their comments which promoted misogyny and anti-women views, with Yadav and his party leadership being labeled in 2014 as supporters and defenders of rape and rapists for their comments "Boys are boys, they make mistakes"; Yadav was previously condemned for opposing the
Women's Reservation Bill in March 2010 and warning to withdraw from the alliance, making a sexist comment that "if the bill is passed it will fill Parliament with the kind of women who invite catcalls and whistles". During its tenure between 2004 and 2014, as well as before, the UPA faced widespread condemnation for indulging in appeasement politics for vote-bank of the Muslim community across India. Following the introduction of
Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, which criminalized
triple talaq or instant divorce and replaced the
Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986, several leaders from the UPA opposed the law. In addition, the UPA faced immense criticism for the formation of the
WAQF Board to appease the Muslim community, which has been responsible for land grabbing and forcible acquisition of properties nationwide, while evicting the original owners who possessed legal documents of ownership. The UPA, in its opposition, faced immense criticism by the NDA Government for banking frauds, mostly by giving unsecured loans to fugitive businessmen
Vijay Mallya,
Nirav Modi and
Mehul Choksi during the tenure of then Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh. Mallya owes money to a consortium of 17 banks, from whom he took loan to fund his now closed
Kingfisher Airlines, and Modi
owes money to the
Punjab National Bank. While Mallya and Modi have been apprehended in the Great Britain and awaiting extradition, Choksi acquired citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda, with a warrant against him to extradite to India for the bank fraud. ==See also==