‘Op Sindoor Not Stopped Under Pressure': Rajnath Tells Parliament, Skips Mention of Pahalgam Attack Probe
With Modi absent, Singh opened the special discussion in the Lok Sabha but skipped naming the US President's claims of ceasefire mediation. He also said that instead of asking about Indian jets, opposition should ask how many Pakistani ones were downed.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh speaks in the Lok Sabha during monsoon session of parliament. Photo: PTI
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained absent in parliament on Monday (July 28) as the Lok Sabha began a special discussion on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, who opened the discussion, made only a passing reference to the April 22 terror attack, and made no reference to US President Donald Trump's continued claims of having mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan following the four-day long military confrontation.
Instead, Singh said that the decision to stop hostilities was taken because India had already achieved its 'stated political and military objectives' and to say 'the operation was stopped under any pressure is baseless and completely incorrect".
The discussion in parliament began in the Lok Sabha on Monday after months of pressure from the opposition to have a special session on the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor in the presence of the prime minister, although Modi was not present in the House today.
Meanwhile, Singh's speech in Lok Sabha focused on Operation Sindoor and its achievements without making any mention of how the terrorists behind the Pahalgam attack had entered India, the status of the investigation against them and how they were allowed to flee.
The only mention in Singh's about hour-long speech of the terror attack itself was when he said that the "inhuman and cowardly attack took place on April 22".
"In this attack 25 innocent Indians and one Nepali civilian were killed. These innocent civilians were killed after asking their religion. This itself showed the inhuman and horrific nature of the attack. The attack was a test of India's tolerance," he said.
Singh then went on to elaborate about Operation Sindoor, and repeated the claims already made by the Union government on the armed forces being given a free hand to undertake Operation Sindoor in which nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) were targeted on May 7.
While the four day-long military conflict between India and Pakistan stopped following the announcement of a ceasefire by Trump, India has since maintained that the decision was taken bilaterally after the Pakistani DGMO called his Indian counterpart. This is despite the fact that Trump has continued to make the claim that he had used trade as leverage to bring the two countries back from the brink of nuclear war.
While the opposition has been demanding that the Union government address Trump's claims, Singh, without taking the US President's name, said that the decision to halt the operations was not taken under any pressure.
'The objective of this operation was to destroy terrorist camps and target their supporters and to give the clear message that India has zero tolerance for terrorism. India only halted the operation because before and during the conflict its stated political and military objectives had been achieved. Therefore to say that the operation was stopped under any pressure is baseless and completely incorrect.' he said.
While Operation Sindoor involved four days of military confrontation for the first time in decades, Singh said that the objective of the operation was not to 'start a war' or 'crossing the border or capturing territory.'
'I would also like to inform the House that crossing the border or capturing territory there was not the objective of this operation. The purpose of launching Operation Sindoor was to eliminate those terror nurseries that Pakistan had nurtured for years. Operation Sindoor was launched to deliver justice to those innocent families who lost their loved ones in Pak-sponsored terrorist attacks. Our forces only targeted those who, while supporting these terrorists, were continuously involved in attempting to attack India,' he said.
'The overall politico-military objective of Operation Sindoor was to punish Pakistan, which was waging a proxy war in the form of terrorism. For this reason, the Armed Forces were given complete freedom to choose their own targets and deliver a strong response. The purpose of this operation was never to start a war but to compel the adversary to yield through the demonstrative use of force,' he added.
While questions have also been raised about the number of Rafale jets that India lost in the conflict, there has been no clear answer from the government except admissions like"losses are a part of combat" by the military leadership.
Singh argued that while the opposition is asking how many Indian jets were lost, they did not ask how many Pakistan ones were downed.
'I want to tell the opposition that if you have to ask a question, then ask this question: was Operation Sindoor successful? The answer is, yes. If you have a question to ask, ask this: Have the terrorists who wiped the sindoor off our sisters and daughters been dealt with by our forces in Operation Sindoor, eliminating their masters? The answer is, yes. If you have a question to ask, ask this: were any of our brave soldiers harmed in this operation? The answer is, no, none of our soldiers were harmed,' he said.
Singh further said that the focus should not be on 'relatively small issues' and only the results matter.
'When the goals are big, our focus should not go to relatively small issues. Because by constantly focusing on small issues, attention can shift away from major issues like the country's security and the honour and morale of soldiers, as is happening with some of our friends in the opposition.
'The result matters in the outcome of any examination. If a child scores good marks in an exam, then for us, those marks should matter. We should not focus on the fact that their pencil broke or their pen got lost during the exam. Ultimately, the result matters, and the result is that during Operation Sindoor, our armed forces fully achieved the objectives they had set,' he said.
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