Pahalgam Terror Attack and Operation Sindoor Debate
Asia News Agency
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday told Lok Sabha that no world leader told India to stop Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, and that he clearly informed US Vice President J D Vance during their May 9 phone call that the Indian armed forces will launch an even bigger attack in response to any Pakistani action.
He, however, didn’t name US President Donald Trump, who had claimed that his administration used trade to force India and Pakistan to agree to ceasefire. ‘No leader in the world told India to stop its operation,’ the PM said during the special 16-hour Operation Sindoor debate in the Lok Sabha. The Prime Minister avoided answering how Trump was the first person to announce the ceasefire and not the Indian government.
Earlier in the day, while intervening in the Operation Sindoor debate, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi dared PM Modi to call Trump a liar. If he has the courage, he will say here that Donald Trump is a liar, the Congress leader said.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s intervention
Earlier, during the debate in the Lok Sabha on the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh made the following points.
Intelligence failure: He chose not to respond the the question of how did the attack occur and whether there was an intelligence failure.
Air Force loses: The Opposition tagged on to Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chouhan statement on the sidelines of the Shang-Ri La Dialogue in Singapore that the Air Force lost fighter jets on May 7 but quickly changed tactics to inflict major damage on Pakistani airbases.
The Defence Minister did not provide a specific answer to this question, saying ‘ultimately, the result matters, and the result is that our forces achieved fully the goals of Operation Sindoor.’
He added, ‘The Opposition question does not represent India’s sentiments. They have not yet asked how many Pakistani planes were shot down. If they want to ask questions, their question should be: Did India destroy terror bases? The answer is yes. Was Operation Sindoor successful? The answer is yes. Were the masters of terrorists who wiped Sindoor off the foreheads of our sisters and daughters destroyed? The answer is yes….”
Pressure from US government: Singh dismissed the Opposition’s question about whether pressure from Trump played a role in the government’s decision to halt the military offensive on May 10. Operation Sindoor, he said ‘was halted because we had fulfilled our political and military objectives. To say it was done under any pressure is totally baseless and wrong…’
Stating that the defence forces were given full freedom to choose their targets, the Minister said ‘the aim was not to go to war but to compel the adversary to bend. After the powerful attacks, Pakistan accepted defeat and requested that hostilities be stopped … We accepted with a caveat: that the Operation has just been halted and not ended. If Pakistan attempts any misadventure, I want to assure the House, the operation will begin again.’
