Talked of Nehru, my mother’s tears but did not answer why was war stopped: Priyanka Gandhi
NEW DELHI, July 29: In a no-holds-barred attack, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using the armed forces to protect his image after the Pahalgam attack and dared him to rebut US President Donald Trump’s India-Pakistan ceasefire claims.
“If Modi ji has even 50 per cent of the courage that Indira Gandhi had, then clearly he must say in Parliament – Donald Trump is lying,” he said.
Gandhi also said that if the government had listened to his statement in Lok Sabha a few months ago on China and Pakistan fusing together, they would “not have lost five aircraft” during Operation Sindoor.
Rahul claimed the government revealed sensitive details about Operation Sindoor to Pakistan, soon after it was launched.
“Yesterday, I watched Rajnath Singh ji’s speech. He said that Operation Sindoor began at 1:05 in the morning and lasted for 22 minutes. He said a very shocking thing: that at 1:35, we called Pakistan and told them that we had hit non-military targets and we didn’t want escalation. These are the words of the Defence Minister of India,” the former Congress president said.
“You told Pakistan exactly what you would do: that you would not target military establishments and you didn’t want escalation. That’s surrender. Immediate surrender in 30 minutes,” Gandhi said, slamming the government.
He cited remarks by Defence Attache in Indonesia, Group Captain Shiv Kumar, to claim that there were constraints by the political leadership to not attack the Pakistani military establishment and their air defences.
Why was the Pakistani government told that India will neither attack their army infrastructure nor their air defense and why were the hands of the Indian Air Force tied, Gandhi asked.
He alleged that the goal of this exercise was to “protect the image of the PM” as he had “blood of Pahalgam victims on his hands”.
Gandhi said this government is clueless about what deterrence and political will means, and gave Indira Gandhi’s example when Pakistan was broken into two parts in 1971. A combative Priyanka Gandhi also took on Shah for his remarks earlier in the day when he cited then Union minister Salman Khurshid’s remarks to claim that then Congress president Sonia Gandhi “cried for the Batla House terrorists”.“My mother’s tears were talked about in the House, I want to answer this. My mother’s tears fell when her husband was martyred by terrorists, when she was only 44-years-old. Today, I am standing in this House and talking about those 26 people (who were killed in Pahalgam) because I know their pain and feel it,” she said.
The MP from Wayanad in Kerala said Shah talked about Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, even her mother’s tears but did not answer “why the war was halted at a time when the enemy had nowhere to go”. (PTI)