Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the government of not giving ‘full freedom of operation’ to the Armed Forces during Operation Sindoor.
Participating in a special discussion in the Lok Sabha on India’s strong, successful, and decisive ‘Operation Sindoor’ in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Gandhi said, “There are two words – ‘political will’ and ‘freedom of operation’. If you want to use the Indian armed forces, then you should have 100 per cent political will and you have to give them full freedom of operation.”
Drawing a comparison between the 1971 war and Operation Sindoor, the Congress MP said Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw had demanded six months to prepare for the Bangladesh Liberation War, and former prime minister Indira Gandhi had agreed to it — demonstrating true political will. “One lakh Pakistani soldiers surrendered. That was the result of real political backing,” he said.
The Congress MP criticised Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement that Operation Sindoor lasted 22 minutes and that India informed Pakistan immediately after the strike that only non-military targets were hit and escalation was not desired. “You told Pakistan your limits, that you didn’t have the political will to strike military targets. You essentially surrendered in 30 minutes,” Gandhi alleged.
The Congress MP also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he brokered the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan following Operation Sindoor. “If the prime minister has even 50 per cent of Indira Gandhi’s courage, he should stand in Parliament and say Trump lied,” he said.
The Congress MP also raised concerns over growing China-Pakistan military collaboration, referring to shared intelligence and joint command presence in PLA theatres. “Our biggest foreign policy challenge is to de-link China and Pakistan, but this government has allowed them to fuse into a single unified front,” he said.
“The point is that we’re now facing a Chinese-Pakistani fusion right in front of us. This is a very dangerous time, and we can’t afford a prime minister who lacks the courage to utilise the army effectively,” he said.
“We can’t afford a prime minister who doesn’t have the guts to say Donald Trump is a liar, that he didn’t stop India from fighting and is lying about the planes,” he said, adding, “We need a prime minister who empowers the Army and Air Force, giving them the freedom to act, and says, ‘Finish the job,’ much like Indira Gandhi did,” the leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha said.