Indian opposition parties on Tuesday assailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failures in the Pakistan-India four-day conflict earlier this year.
As New Delhi launched deadly air strikes on Pakistan in early May over allegations about the Pahalgam attack, which Islamabad denied, PAF downed six Indian jets in its response. After tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire.
Speaking in the monsoon session of the Indian lower house of parliament, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi said Modi’s government “lacked the political will to fight Pakistan and, because of that, asked the armed forces to attack with their hands tied behind their backs,” according to NDTV.
“If Modi ji has even 50 per cent of the courage that Indira Gandhi had, then clearly say in parliament — Donald Trump is lying,” Gandhi, who is a member of the opposition Congress party, said.
He added that the Indian prime minister should state that neither did Trump broker a ceasefire, nor have any of India’s planes had been shot down.
“Don’t make the army a means to save your image, Modi ji,” Gandhi said.
“The defence minister said the most shocking thing. He said that, at 1:35 am, we called Pakistan and told them we had hit non-military targets and didn’t want an escalation,” he added.
The Indian leader of the opposition said the Indian defence minister did not understand what he revealed, adding, “The Director General of Military Operations was told by the government to ask for a ceasefire at 1:35am that very night.”
“You told the Pakistanis exactly what you would do, that you would not hit military targets. You told them directly that you don’t have the political will to fight. It’s like you are telling them, ‘We have slapped you, but we won’t slap you further’,” Gandhi said.
Referring to the Indian Chief of Defence Staff’s admission that Indian jets had been shot down by Pakistan, he said, “CDS Gen Chauhan should have the guts to say that my hands were tied behind my back by my own government.”
He added that not a single country has condemned Pakistan.
Deputy Leader of the Congress party in the lower house, Gaurav Gogoi, said, “You think 35 Rafale jets are enough — we don’t think so. Even losing one would be a big loss,” according to Indian news outlet the Economic Times.
“The media, which gets its information from you, made it seem like we would wake up in Karachi the next day — but you stopped short,” Gogoi added.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said, “ Agencies failed. This falls under the home minister — did he resign? Did he even take responsibility?“
She also questioned why PM Modi agreed to stop the war.
Leader of the Opposition of the Upper House Mallikarjun Kharge questioned if the Indian government had prior notice of the Pahalgam attack, saying, “PM [Modi] cancelled his schedule three days before the Pahalgam attack — was the govt aware in advance?”
“Trump says five jets were shot down. If he’s your friend and you campaign for him, why are you silent on this?” Kharge asked PM Modi.
Pakistani security sources said on Monday that India has once again begun “fake encounters” under the guise of countering terrorism, with an alleged plan to “use” detained Pakistanis in them, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh denied bowing to pressure to end fighting while speaking at the opening of a discussion in parliament on the Pahalgam attack.
“India halted its operation because all the political and military objectives studied before and during the conflict had been fully achieved,” Singh said. “To suggest that the operation was called off under pressure is baseless and entirely incorrect.”
