Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday (July 29, 2025) alleged that the ruling NDA lacked political will to carry out Operation Sindoor, and the entire exercise was carried out only to protect the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Participating in the special discussion on “India’s strong, successful and decisive Operation Sindoor in response to the terror attack in Pahalgam” in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Gandhi said he wanted to tell the PM that the nation was above his image, his politics and his Public Relations exercise and Mr. Modi must have “the humility and the dignity” to understand that.
The problem which India faced, the LoP said, was not just Pakistan and China, but “China and Pakistan fused militarily”.
“If you want to fight, then go all out and defeat them once and for all… We cannot afford a PM who doesn’t have courage to use army the way it has to be used… We need a PM who frees the Army, the Air Force, like Indira Gandhi did,” he said.
Asserting that every Indian felt pain when they thought of the Pahalgam attack, Mr. Gandhi said the Indian forces were tigers who would die for the country. But “tigers should be given freedom. You cannot tie them down”.
‘Indira Gandhi said we don’t care’
Mr. Gandhi said that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in his speech on Monday (July 28, 2025), had compared Operation Sindoor to the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. “But there was political will in 1971. The U.S. seventh fleet was on its way towards India and then the Prime Minister said we will do what we want to. The superpower was coming, but the PM says we don’t care.”
Similarly, General Manekshaw told Indira Gandhi that he would not do the operation in summer and Indira Gandhi gave him the freedom of action and maneuvre, he said.
Mr. Gandhi claimed that the Defence Minister had revealed that the Director General of Military Operations was told by the Government of India to ask for a ceasefire just 30 minutes after Operation Sindoor began. “You told them we will not hit military targets, we do not want escalation.”
He alleged, “The government of India informed the government of Pakistan that we have no political will and we will not fight.”
Forces’ ‘hands tied behind their backs’
The LoP also quoted Captain Shiv Kumar, India’s Defence Attache to Indonesia, as saying that India had lost some aircraft and that happened only because of the constraints given by the political leadership not to attack air defence and military targets. “You tied their hands behind their backs and the Defence Minister has said this in Parliament itself.”
The Congress MP from Raebareli also pointed out that while all countries as mentioned by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar condemned terror, not a single country condemned Pakistan post the Pahalgam attack, which meant that the world was equating India with Pakistan.
He said that Mr. Jaishankar liked to use the phrase “new normal”. The “new normal” was that the chief architect of the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan’s General Muneer, had lunch with U.S. President Donald Trump, he said.
Mr. Gandhi challenged Mr. Modi to say in his speech that President Trump was lying when he claimed to have brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. “If he (PM) has the courage of Indira Gandhi, then let him say here that ‘Donald Trump, you are a liar’ and that ‘we did not lose any planes’. Even if he has 50% courage of Indira Gandhi…(he should say so)”.
‘Amit Shah’s speech baseless’
Speaking earlier, Congress MP K.C. Venugopal said Home Minister Amit Shah did not speak a single word on the security failure over the Pahalgam terror attack.
“If you are calling tourists to visit Kashmir, isn’t it your primary duty to make security available to them? Around one crore tourists visit Jammu and Kashmir during that period. Here even if 50 people are gathering, there will be security and surveillance.”
Mr. Shah’s speech was completely baseless, he claimed.
He listed the terror attacks which occurred during the NDA regime and said the State of Manipur was still burning. “A total of 197 security personnel were killed in Kashmir. Pahalgam is not an isolated incident.” Mr Venugopal said.
The Kerala MP said that in Pahalgam, the terrorists asked the religion and names of the victims and then killed them. ”The conspirators, the people behind, their design was very clear, to divide the country on the basis of religion. Terrorists are doing this (creating communal divide) from outside but you people are doing the same job from inside.”
“There were attempts to divide this country but this country stood together,” Mr. Venugopal said.
