Rama Krishna Sangem
Opposition Leader in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi scored more point s than that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 16 hour long debate on Operation Sindoor in the House on July 29, Tuesday. National TV news channels have created a hype around the debate for the last two days saying that a major statement is expected from PM Modi on this issue. The fiery debate has preceded by many other speakers from both the ruling and opposition benches.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar were the star speakers from the BJP side while Akhilesh Yadav, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi were the key participants from the opposition side. As LoP (Leader of Opposition), Rahul Gandhi naturally got the prime slot minutes before the PM Modi. Of course, BJP’s Simbit Patra spoke in between them.
Rahul squarely raised three major questions to the PM. One, why the government has restrained the armed forces from attacking Pakistan’s armed bases or air defences after the Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7. Two, why India’s diplomacy had failed to get the international community condemning Pakistan as responsible for Pahalgam terror attack. Three, is it true that US President Trump had prevented the conflict as he has been claiming credit for it.
Of course, there are other points too in Rahul’s speech, but they only for the sake of argument. Rahul Gandhi, who normally is not known for focused and pointed speeches has shown sharpness in his attack on the Modi government in LS. He noted down points on a piece of paper but spoke eloquently, addressing the House. Notably, he took enough care not to lower the image of Indian armed forces at any point of his speech. His actions in showing how the hands of armed forces were tied added visual effect to his speech.
Modi skipped Trump point.
Modi in his elaborate speech mostly repeated what he has been saying since May 10, end of the Op Sindoor. As usually, he attacked Nehru for letting go Pak Occupied Kashmir in 1947-48 and how Indira Gandhi had entered Shimla Agreement without taking back the PoK. But, these points were several times stated by all senior BJP leaders, including Rajnath, Shah and Jaishankar. So, there is nothing new in Modi’s speech. The PM almost ignored Rahul’s points and only confined to hailing Operation Sindoor.
“No world leader has asked us to end the conflict,” said Modi, without mentioning the name of Trump. Modi didn’t mention that no country had condemned Pakistan for being behind Pahalgam terror attack. Modi only said that the entire world had appreciated India’s right to hit back at the terror infrastructure in Pakistan. Modi also not mentioned about the loss of jets from India side in the brief conflict. The two day long debate ended on predictable lines, without giving any additional information about the India-Pak conflict three months ago.
