S Jaishankar slams Congress on China, stand on Op Sindoor
In a strong statement made in the Rajya Sabha during the Operation Sindoor debate, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar slammed the Opposition on its skepticism about the achievements of the armed forces and the manner in which the ceasefire took place on May 10. He assured that India is working on the concerns arising out of the proximity between China and Pakistan even as he slammed Congress for the manner in which it had dealt with the former.
Jaishankhar underlined that the Pahalgam terror attack was 'absolutely unacceptable' and it had crossed our red lines. 'There had to be severe consequences… There had to be accountability and justice,' he said.
The minister refuted the oft-repeated charge of the Opposition that Indian diplomacy had not risen to the level expected in the aftermath of the terror attack and the consequent Operation Sindoor.'For decades, Bahawalpur and Muridke were considered the biggest centres of terrorism, not just in Pakistan but for global terrorists. When we hit Bahawalpur and Muridke, the world thanked us. When those funerals were taking place, when people came to cry over those dead terrorists lying around, that was the success of Operation Sindoor,' he said.Jaishankar rued that the Opposition is 'determinedly sceptical' of the government's achievements as it is 'sitting on the other side and cannot bring itself to believe it'.
He also countered the view that US President Donald Trump had talked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and facilitated the ceasefire.'I want to tell them (Opposition) and they should listen to this with open ears that there was no phone call between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi between April 22 and June 16,' Jaishankar said, adding that though India is not a part of the UN Security Council and Pakistan is, India's diplomacy ensured that US declare TRF a global terrorist organisation,' he said.On China-Pakistan nexus, the minister said there are some 'China gurus' in Parliament who have gathered their information from visits to the neighbouring country during Olympics and later through 'private tuitions' from the Chinese ambassador to India.'China and Pakistan are close. That is a reality and we are dealing with it,' Jaishankar said. He slammed the previous Congress governments for making China a 'strategic partner'.The foreign minister lauded the achievements of the Indian armed forces in bringing Pakistan to make the call for a ceasefire.'To quote people on the other side. Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif says, 'our armed forces were prepared to attack at 4:30 am after prayers to teach a lesson but before that hour arrived, India launched a missile attack using BrahMos, targeting various provinces in Pakistan, including the airport at Rawalpindi and other places. This is the prime minister of Pakistan admitting…,' Jaishankar said, adding that General Munir had stated that India has hit the Nur Khan air base.The minister underlined that anybody questioning these issues is disrespecting the armed forces.
On the Indus Waters Treaty, Jaishankar said it was an extraordinary deal as no other nation lets its major rivers flow to another country without rights. 'As we put the treaty in abeyance, some felt uneasy recalling its history… they prefer selective memory… The Indus Water Treaty will be held in abeyance until Pakistan irrevocably gives up its support of terrorism... Blood and water will not flow together,' he said. The minister maintained that Jawaharlal Nehru signed the Indus Waters Treaty in the name of "goodwill", but the country only got terrorism and betrayal in return. Nehru prioritized farmers of Pakistan's Punjab over those in Kashmir and Rajasthan.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
21 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: India must not bend the knee before Trump's tariffs
Hello, and welcome to the Best of BS Opinion, our distilled wrap of today's Opinion page. Our lead columnist Shyam Saran makes a forceful case for standing up to the United States' geopolitical arm-twisting using tariffs as leverage. Not resisting now will lead to bigger demands in the future, he warns, and could had long-term consequences for India's national security, credibility, and influence. There will certainly be a price to pay, and India should be prepared, not by closing off its economy but by making it more outward-looking. As it is, the US' tariffs will only have a modest impact on India's GDP, a price the country should be willing to pay. In fact, he says, India should follow its Look East policy more vigorously because that region wants India to be a counterweight to China. It should also become part of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, where currently neither China nor the US is present. Insulating the nation from the vagaries of Trump's policies may be best served by this initiative, he says. It is not easy steering Indian democracy in live action: witness the often-raucuous scenes that play out on our screens when Parliament is in session. Yet, it is a role that Harivansh Narayan Singh has in the past played to near-perfection, writes Aditi Phadnis. As deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, he was unerringly fair, always putting principle over party. It also helped that he was unfailingly polite. A former journalist who is credited with the turnaround of Bihar Prabhat, his politics hewed close to former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, who was a major political influence in his life. With the Vice President's position falling empty with Jagdeep Dhankhar's abrupt resignation, political circles are abuzz with names of likely candidates for the second-highest position in the republic. It is no surprise that Singh's name is among them - a win would redefine his political career. India, and the rest of the world, is trying to figure Donald Trump out so as to survive him until the midterm elections in the US two years from now. Before that, India must look find ways to protect itself from his monumental irrationality. But first, we must also look within at the bipolarity within the Indian 'establishment' - which encompasses government and its multi-faceted support base, including social media and TV studio experts, write Shekhar Gupta. From being euphoric about our closeness to the US and India finally gaining its rightful place at the world table, the Indian establishment is now reverting to Cold War-level suspicion of Uncle Sam and playing hurt victim. The other element of bipolarity exists within the establishment itself, he points out: even as the Prime Minister and others are acting quietly and prudently, working the levers behind the stage, the support base is the exact opposite, in a constant state of anger and hurt. There is something about nostalgia that makes us want to revisit the past, no matter how long ago. We all go back at least once to our school or college or hostel, just to soak in our memories one more time. The recent box-office success of Indian movies upon a re-release seems to prove that point. Sandeep Goyal pulls on that thread and wonders if a rerun of brand campaigns that have had a successful first innings would work the second time around. Recalling some of India's most iconic ad campaigns - Gold Spot's 'The Zing Thing', Parle's 'Melody itni chocolatey kaise bani', and Tata Sky's 'Isko laga daala to life jhinga-la-la, to name just a few - he bats for a second coming of such memorable ads. There are caveats, though: Tinkering with the original might backfire spectacularly, as Cadbury's gender-reversed re-run of Dairy Milk showed. Chintan Girish Modi, pens a heartfelt ode - ironically, in prose - to the legendary Eunice de Souza, poet extraordinaire and teacher at the equally famous St Xavier's College in Mumbai. August 1, when this column was written, is also de Souza's birthday and is commemorated by the college as Poetry Day, a rare incidence of anyone celebrating either a poet or a teacher, or as in this case, both. Modi recites parts of her poems, and is struck by her distinctive voice, and even more by her freedom with - and within - the language, unencumbered by the need for obscure allusions and pretentious references.
Hans India
21 minutes ago
- Hans India
Congress sleepwalks toward irrelevance and a 2029 defeat
The Congress party and it's I.N.D.I.A bloc allies have once again exposed their deep-rooted bias and misplaced priorities by mocking names like Operation Mahadev and Operation Sindoor. In their desperation to attack the government, they've stooped to questioning military operations, insulting our armed forces, and echoing hostile foreign voices like Donald Trump. From denying Pakistan's role in terror attacks to staying silent on the Malegaon verdict, the opposition's selective outrage and appeasement politics have crossed all limits. They refuse to show empathy to victims, seek justice for the falsely accused, or respect national sentiment which exposes their dangerous hypocrisy and reminds them that secularism doesn't mean shaming Hindu symbols or compromising India's integrity. They say you can wake up a sleeping person, but you cannot wake someone who is pretending to be asleep. This aptly describes the Congress party and the disjointed I.N.D.I.A bloc today. Their posturing in Parliament during the debate on Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev proves one thing: if they continue down this path, they are inching towards a political wipeout by 2029. Let me begin with a small anecdote. In Tamil Nadu, sworn opponents DMK and AIADMK, despite their ideological battles, once presented a united front before Singapore authorities regarding a delayed project. The Singapore officials were stunned to see both parties in the same room. The Tamil leaders simply replied, 'Our fight is only within the state. When it comes to protecting Tamil Nadu's interests, we are one.' In stark contrast, look at Andhra Pradesh's YSRCP, a Congress offshoot led by former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. They shamelessly wrote to Singapore, urging them to withhold investments in Andhra Pradesh, citing a potential change in government at a time when the incumbent Chief Minister and the official delegation were in talks to attract investments to the state. And in Delhi, the Congress and allies act in a similar fashion — prioritising petty politics over national interest. During the parliamentary discussion on the military operations that neutralised terrorists and upheld national honour, Congress and its allies insulted the armed forces by questioning the names of the operations — Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev — calling them communal and divisive. Seriously? They don't ask how our armed forces entered deep into Pakistani territory, destroyed their airbase and effectively called Pakistan's nuclear bluff and how the homemade missiles caught the attention of the world and how our forces neutralised drones. Instead, they obsess over how many aircraft India may have lost and why the operation was named 'Mahadev,' even going so far as to claim—without a shred of evidence—that five jets were downed. What a distorted sense of priorities. Some argue that terrorists don't care about religion when they kill. But how can they dismiss the words of a young widow whose husband was brutally murdered before her eyes—after the terrorists explicitly asked about their religion? Former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram even shamelessly asked, 'Where is the proof that they came from Pakistan? They could be home-grown terrorists.' Does he want to be Pakistan's defence lawyer? Is there no empathy left in the Congress leadership for the families of those who died in the Pahalgam attack? The grieving families found some solace on coming to know that the killers were neutralised. But the opposition? They were busy crafting conspiracy theories and playing communal politics. Their hatred for the current government has become so blind that they've started echoing the words of US President Donald Trump over the statements made by India's own ministers in Parliament. Trump falsely claimed on multiple occasions that he brokered peace between India and Pakistan. The opposition clowns couldn't even decide how many times Trump said it — some said 25, Rahul said 29. Maybe they should learn basic arithmetic before jumping into geopolitics. They should have also spoken about Trump's theatrics of sharing an AI-generated video of the arrest of former president of US Barack Obama, something which is not expected from people in such high positions. When Trump called India's economy 'dead,' Rahul Gandhi — ever eager to join anyone who criticises the country just to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi — promptly echoed the statement. But Trump's comment wasn't surprising, considering that the U.S. is now courting Pakistan to explore so-called 'massive oil reserves.' This has sparked scepticism: Does Pakistan really have oil reserves significant enough to attract major American interest? Official Pakistani data tells a different story. In 2019, Pakistan produced only 89,030 barrels of crude oil per day. By 2025, this figure is projected to fall further to 64,262 barrels per day — hardly a sign of a booming oil economy. Meanwhile, what truly seems to irk the U.S. — and by extension, Trump — is that India has become the world's fourth-largest economy, trailing only the US, China and Germany. Even more disruptive was India's launch of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — a revolutionary digital platform that brought cashless convenience to over one billion people, many of whom never had access to traditional banking systems. While much of the developed world remains tethered to credit cards and slow, fee-laden payment models, UPI leapfrogged ahead — empowering everyone from small-time vendors to global entrepreneurs. India's digital economy is flourishing. Per capita income has doubled in the last 11 years, and the country is now a global leader in GDP growth. In such a scenario, calling the Indian economy 'dead' is not just false — it's absurd. When your country is unfairly criticised, a patriot stands up in its defence. But not Rahul Gandhi — for him, attacking Modi takes precedence over defending India. Rahul, as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, demanded 'proof' of Operation Sindoor's success. But he must now explain a far more serious issue: Who was responsible for the 2008 Malegaon blasts? He must stop ducking the issue and apologise for maligning individuals like Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and Major Ramesh Upadhyay, who lost 17 crucial years of their lives to false accusations. The courts have since dismissed the so-called 'saffron terror' narrative. If not them, then who was behind the blasts? Will Congress take responsibility? Will they apologise or offer restitution? Unlikely. Instead, Rahul Gandhi continues to deflect with lines like, 'Don't divert the issue. The real issue is India's economy is dead.' But that's the real tragedy — a politics devoid of accountability, humility, or truth. Sonia Gandhi, who chaired the UPA at the time, and Rahul Gandhi must break their silence. Justice delayed was grave enough — justice denied would be unforgivable. And now, the same bunch dares to call Operation Mahadev communal! Do they not know that naming military operations is the prerogative of the armed forces, often based on geography, symbolism, or historical references? Under Congress rule, there were operations like: Operation Vijay; Operation Meghdoot; Operation Shivalik and Operation Devi Shakti. Were these names not Hindu references? Were those operations communal? Of course not. Each Indian army regiment has its own battle cry: Gorkha Rifles: 'Jai Maa Kali, Ayo Gorkhali!' Rajputana Rifles: 'Raja Ram Chandra Ki Jai!' Kumaon Regiment: 'Kalika Mata Ki Jai!' Sikh Regiment: 'Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal!' These are not signs of communalism — they are signs of regimental spirit, heritage, and pride. The Congress and its allies need to understand that secularism does not mean mocking Hinduism at every opportunity. It means equal respect for all religions. But unfortunately, they see religious insult only in Hindu expressions, while bending over backwards to appease others. Their attempts to peddle fear and division have backfired. Even the minorities they claim to champion see through this farce now. The Congress no longer understands the pulse of the people — their outdated politics of appeasement, victimhood, and communal blame-game have rendered them irrelevant in modern India. It's high time the Congress stops pretending to be asleep — or else, they will sleepwalk into another electoral disaster in 2029. (The author is former Chief Editor of The Hans India)
Hindustan Times
21 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Cricketer Rinku Singh removed as SVEEP icon over ‘neutrality concerns'
LUCKNOW The Election Commission of India (ECI) has removed Indian cricketer Rinku Singh from the voter awareness campaign - SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) - in Uttar Pradesh. Rinku Singh was engaged to Samajwadi Party MP from Machhlishahr Lok Sabha constituency Priya Saroj on June 8. (File Photo) Due to his popularity among youths, Singh was included in the campaign as a youth icon to motivate voters. But on Friday, the UP chief electoral officer (CEO) directed district administration officers across UP to remove all publicity material, including posters, videos and photos from websites, featuring Singh. Singh was engaged to Samajwadi Party MP from Machhlishahr Lok Sabha constituency Priya Saroj on June 8. Top SP leaders including party chief Akhilesh Yadav attended the ceremony organised in Lucknow. 'After the engagement, Singh is associated with a political person. The icon engaged in the voter awareness campaign should remain apolitical and neutral, in both spirit and practice. The decision to remove Singh has been taken to maintain impartiality in the awareness campaign,' said an officer from the CEO office. Though Rinku Singh had not made any political statement or expressed intent to join politics after engagement with Priya Saroj, but ECI rules clearly state that any perceived political connection is sufficient ground for removal of the icon from an official public outreach initiative, the officer said. Political circles were abuzz with reaction over the ECI's decision, with some terming it as a fair decision by the poll panel and others saying that even after engagement with a politician, Singh did not indulge in politics. However, there was no comment from Rinku Singh or Priya Saroj over the ECI's decision. Rinku Singh shot into the limelight following his remarkable performance when he hit five consecutive sixes in an over during an IPL match, which gave a thrilling victory to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) against Gujarat Titans in 2023. KKR had retained Singh for ₹13 crore in the recently concluded IPL. Appointment as BSA doubtful? Meanwhile, the cricketer's appointment as basic shiksha adhikari (BSA) in UP also seemed to be in for a problem after reports that the basic education department, UP, had put his file on hold. Even when Rinku's name figured for the post of BSA netizens took to social media questioning his educational qualifications. Authorities from the basic education department neither confirmed nor rubbished the news of cancellation of Rinku's appointment as BSA. Principal secretary (sports) Manish Chauhan said the file was sent to the basic education department and he had no idea what happened thereafter. Director, basic education, Pratap Singh Baghel said he too had no information and pleaded ignorance on developments on over Rinku's appointment. Another official said the state government is committed to the development of facilities for sports and encouragement of sportspersons. In the last eight years, on one hand, sports infrastructure has been developed at the rural level, while on the other hand, medal winning players are being given respectable prize money along with government jobs. UP remains the leading state in the country in terms of giving government jobs to players who have raised the prestige of the country and state through sports at the international level, he said.
