Shashi Tharoor's Op Sindoor praise sparks Congress infighting, Justice Varma may face impeachment
The episode of 5ive Live focusses on the political controversy surrounding Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's comments praising Operation Sindoor and Prime Minister Modi. Some Congress leaders have criticised Tharoor, calling him a 'super spokesman' of the BJP. The show also covers a TMC leader's controversial remarks about PM Modi ahead of his Bengal visit.
Additionally, it discusses new details emerging from the inquiry report on the cash haul case involving Justice Yashwant Varma. A Supreme Court-appointed panel has indicted a High Court judge in a corruption case involving unexplained cash. The Chief Justice of India has recommended impeachment after the judge refused to step down. Sources say the government may move an impeachment motion in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. The process requires backing from MPs and a two-thirds majority vote in both Houses. The judge has rejected the panel's findings as motivated and false.
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NDTV
16 minutes ago
- NDTV
No, India Is Not Israel, And Pak Is Not Palestine
In the immediate aftermath of the April 2022 Pahalgam terror attack - where Indian civilians were targeted in a region long destabilised by cross-border militancy - an old but deeply flawed analogy began circulating with renewed vigour: that India is becoming Israel, with Pakistan being touted as the new 'Palestine'. This comparison, invoked by a range of commentators from populist influencers to academic quarters, attempts to overlay the Middle Eastern fault lines onto South Asia. However, while superficially tempting, this analogy is strategically misleading, historically untrue, and morally hazardous. At its core, the Israel-Palestine conflict is a struggle between a militarily dominant state and a stateless people living under occupation. It is defined by asymmetric power, a denial of sovereignty, and ongoing territorial annexation. India and Pakistan, by contrast, are both fully sovereign states that emerged from a negotiated partition of British India in 1947, each with their own internationally recognised borders and UN memberships. The bilateral conflict, especially over Kashmir, stems not from a denial of statehood but from unresolved territorial claims. Pakistan's continued insistence on linking Kashmir to Palestine flattens these distinctions and obfuscates the history of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism across Indian territory - from Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir to episodic destabilisation in India's Northeast. Equating Pakistani actions with Palestinian resistance also undermines the moral and strategic integrity of the Palestinian cause. It erases the fact that, unlike Palestinians under occupation, Pakistan has used its sovereign apparatus to sponsor and shelter groups involved in acts of terror. This deliberate state complicity - acknowledged even by global institutions - makes Pakistan an aggressor, not an aggrieved actor. Minorities, Democracy, and Statehood One of the more dangerous simplifications of the analogy lies in the misrepresentation of internal minority politics in both regions. It is true that India is facing criticism over recent communal tensions, polarised discourse, and policies perceived as marginalising Muslims. However, equating that with the condition of Palestinians under occupation ignores the difference between a flawed democracy and an apartheid state structure. In India, Muslims remain an electorally significant, constitutionally recognised group whose cultural, linguistic, and religious institutions are protected under law. Their political presence - though under strain - remains visible. From Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the country's first Education Minister, to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, one of India's most beloved Presidents, the leadership and legacy of Indian Muslims is historically well-anchored. In contemporary times, figures like Asaduddin Owaisi, a staunch government critic, and Salman Khurshid, a senior Congress leader with no constitutional post, were both part of an all-party delegation sent abroad to brief international counterparts in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor. Their inclusion, despite being politically oppositional, signals a rare bipartisan consensus on matters of national security. Contrast this with Pakistan, where Ahmadiyyas are constitutionally barred from calling themselves Muslims, and Shias are frequently targeted in sectarian violence. The state's own structures are often complicit in marginalising non-Sunni groups, with blasphemy laws regularly weaponised against minorities. These are not merely social biases but systemic exclusions - legally and politically embedded. Meanwhile, in Palestine, the question is not one of minority rights within a sovereign state but of basic human existence under foreign occupation. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live without freedom of movement, due legal process, or political autonomy. Lumping these distinct contexts together does violence to the nuance required to address each problem on its own terms. Terrorism, Occupation, and Policy India's security doctrine has consistently emphasised that its conflict is not with the people of Pakistan but with its military-intelligence apparatus and its use of terrorism as statecraft. From the insurgency in Kashmir and the Khalistani separatist movement in Punjab to arms flowing into the Northeast in the 1980s and 1990s, India's internal challenges have often traced back to external sponsorship. These were not acts of a stateless community demanding dignity but the result of a neighbour using irregular war to destabilise a regional adversary. Israel, by contrast, has often responded to Palestinian armed resistance with disproportionate force - demolishing homes, bombing refugee camps, and applying collective punishment policies. These actions have generated global concern about human rights violations, and rightly so. However, attempts to map these punitive actions onto India's counter-terror operations obscure the scale, nature, and intent of both countries' military strategies. What makes the analogy particularly hollow is India's long-standing commitment to the Palestinian cause. Even under the Modi government, which has expanded strategic ties with Israel, India has repeatedly reaffirmed its support for a two-state solution and spoken against occupation at UN fora. Far from mimicking Israeli policy, India has walked a diplomatic tightrope - deepening bilateral defence relations with Israel while maintaining principled solidarity with Palestine. Conflating these divergent positions is not only analytically lazy but diplomatically counterproductive. It risks damaging India's credibility in the Global South, especially at a time when New Delhi seeks to position itself as a mediator and developmental partner in multilateral spaces. More importantly, it insults the Palestinian struggle by associating it with Pakistan's agenda of using terrorism and religious nationalism as tools of foreign policy. Reject Lazy Analogies Both the Israel-Palestine and India-Pakistan conflicts demand global attention. But attention should not mean abstraction. The occupation of Palestine is a human rights crisis rooted in land, displacement, and statelessness. The India-Pakistan dynamic, while also involving land and identity, is situated in a very different matrix: of two sovereign nations, one of which has routinely used terrorism to internationalise what is essentially a bilateral issue. Sympathy for the Palestinian cause should not be hijacked to justify flawed analogies that exonerate state complicity in South Asia. Nor should India's legitimate counterterrorism operations be lumped with settler-colonial violence. Doing so only weakens both struggles - reducing history, diplomacy, and suffering to hashtags. In times of polarisation, strategic clarity is not just a virtue, it is a necessity. India is not Israel. Pakistan is not Palestine. And equating them does justice to neither the complexity of history nor the urgency of peace. (Ashraf Nehal is an author, analyst and columnist, who writes on South Asian geopolitics, climate action and world affairs. He was a former PM Young Writing Fellow)
Time of India
17 minutes ago
- Time of India
'Will eventually come back to haunt you': Jaishankar gives blunt warning after Pahalgam attack; asks 'why Laden felt safe in Pakistan?'
External affairs minister S Jaishankar External affairs minister S Jaishankar , who is currently in Brussels to meet the European Union (EU) leaders, had pushed back against the international media's narrative that the India's action " Operation Sindoor " against Pakistan following the terror in Kashmir was a tit-for-tat between two nuclear-armed neighbours and questioned the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. In an exclusive interview with European news website Euractiv, Jaishankar recalled the October 1947 incident when "Pakistan sent invaders" and claimed that the Western countries were very supportive of this. When asked about the international media's narrative over Operation Sindoor, Jaishankar said, "Let me remind you of something – there was a man named Osama bin Laden. Why did he, of all people, feel safe living for years in a Pakistani military town, right next to their equivalent of West Point?" "I want the world to understand – this isn't merely an India–Pakistan issue. It's about terrorism. And that very same terrorism will eventually come back to haunt you," he added. On Russia-Ukraine Jaishankar also addressed why India has not taken any side in Russia Ukraine war . He said India don't believe that differences can be resolved through war or from the battlefield. He further added that it's not for India to prescribe what that solution should be. When asked that India's being judgemental enough by refusing to take a side when Russia is clearly the aggressor, Jaishankar said, "We have a strong relationship with Ukraine as well – it's not only about Russia. But every country, naturally, considers its own experience, history and interests. India has the longest-standing grievance – our borders were violated just months after independence, when Pakistan sent in invaders to Kashmir. And the countries that were most supportive of that? Western countries." "If those same countries – who were evasive or reticent then – now say 'let's have a great conversation about international principles', I think I'm justified in asking them to reflect on their own past," he added. On new geopolitical order Jaishankar said that the multipolarity is already here. Europe now faces the need to make more decisions in its own interest – using its own capabilities, and based on the relationships it fosters globally. 'I hear terms like 'strategic autonomy' being used in Europe – these were once part of our vocabulary," Jaishankar said in an interview. On Trump and India ties Jaishakar said, "I take the world as I find it. Our aim is to advance every relationship that serves our interests – and the US relationship is of immense importance to us. It's not about personality X or president Y.' On India's relationship with China mJaishankar said that any companies are becoming increasingly careful about where they locate their data – they'd rather place it somewhere secure and trustworthy than simply go for efficiency.
NDTV
23 minutes ago
- NDTV
"Our Relationship Not Limited To Politics": Rahul Gandhi On Lalu Yadav
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi greeted RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav on his birthday on Wednesday and said their relationship is not limited to politics but is a deep human bond based on common values and the struggle for social justice. Mr Yadav, a former chief minister of Bihar, turned 77 on Wednesday. "Happy Birthday to former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav Ji. Our relationship has not been limited to politics - it has been a deep human bond, based on common values and the struggle for social justice," Mr Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X. "Your life has been full of struggles, but you have always raised your voice with strength and courage for those who are often unheard," the former Congress president said. "Today on your birthday, I wish you good health and a long life," Mr Gandhi said. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also extended birthday wishes to Mr Yadav. "I wish you good health and a long life," Mr Kharge said. The Congress and the RJD are alliance partners and will be contesting the upcoming Bihar polls as part of the Mahagathbandhan against the NDA coalition.
