By Sushil Kutty
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke in the special debate on Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev and it was a clinical performance, concentrating as he did on explaining threadbare ‘Operation Sindoor’, which was primarily against ‘terrorism’ and Pakistan was a carrier of the disease. For Shah, Donald Trump didn’t matter, but Pakistan mattered and the Congress conduct since then even more so.
The DMK’s Kanimozhi spoke after Shah and though she led one of seven diplomatic delegations Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent to a planeload of countries, Kanimozhi chose to ridicule the Modi government’s foreign policy, at one point joking that Pakistan had at least “two friendly countries” to stand by it, but that India had none…
“The ‘Vishwaguru’ failed,” Kanimozhi added to the takeaway. Question follows why did the Congress refuse Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari the chance to speak? If the DMK could trust Kanimozhi, why couldn’t the Congress Tharoor and Tewari? Maybe, it’s because Kanimozhi belongs to the “ruling family” of the DMK while Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari have no such affiliations working for them.
Shah did not speak of “intelligence failure” but he dwelled deep into the success of ‘Operation Mahadev’ carried out by the Army, CRPF and the Jammu & Kashmir Police. The three Pakistani perpetrators of the Pahalgam terror attack have been killed with the government going to extreme lengths to prove that it had nailed the slain terrorists to the ‘Pahalgam terror attack’.
Amit Shah sounded very satisfied. He took the opportunity to refute P Chidambaram’s claim that Pakistan couldn’t have been behind ‘Pahalgam’. Shah’s “security forces” used rifles found with the three slain terrorists to shred Chidambaram’s “false flag”. Maybe, the former Congress Home Minister will clarify.
“In a joint Operation Mahadev, the Indian Army, CRPF and J&K Police have neutralised three terrorists who were involved in the Pahalgam terror attack,” Shah said. “Suleman was an A-category commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Afghan was an A-category Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist. And Jibran was also an A-grade terrorist… All three terrorists who killed our citizens in the Baisaran valley have been eliminated…”
Shah went on to give a full explanation of how ‘Operation Mahadev’ was carried out, beginning from the very night of the Pahalgam killings.
“A security meeting was held. In that meeting, it was decided that the killers should not be allowed to flee the country and escape to Pakistan. We made solid arrangements to ensure this.”
Then, in May, the Intelligence Bureau received intelligence about the presence of terrorists in a certain area. “From May 22 to July 22, continuous efforts were made to verify this information. Our Army officers kept patrolling in the cold at high altitudes to pick up their signals. On July 22, we got success. Through sensors, we got confirmation about the presence of terrorists in the area.”
The armed forces and the Jammu & Kashmir Police surrounded the terrorists. “In the operation that took place yesterday, all three terrorists responsible for killing our innocent civilians were eliminated,” Shah told the Lok Sabha. The opposition benches listened in relative silence having given him an opportunity to look them in the face.
It was not Amit Shah’s job to explain who brought about the “ceasefire”, President Donald Trump or Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It would be Prime Minister Modi’s lot. Prime Minister Modi was to speak later in the evening. Amit Shah did, however, target the Congress over what he called “Love for China”, which led to India having to continue to fight for the UNSC seat.
“Today, China is in UN Security Council, and India is not. Modiji is trying his best to get India to become a part of the UN Security Council. Jawaharlal Nehru’s stand is responsible for this…When our jawans were facing Chinese soldiers in Doklam, Rahul Gandhi was holding a meeting with the Chinese ambassador…This love for China has passed down three generations from Jawaharlal Nehru, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi.”
At the end of the day, the question being asked is why Union Home Minister Amit Shah was given a fairly easy time in the Lok Sabha. The Home Minister didn’t waste time allotted to him. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke a couple of speakers down the line after Shah concluded but she seemed shy of targeting Shah and questioning his claims.
The Congress appeared more conditioned to target its own even if the “its own” were independent sorts who were giving the Gandhi family a hard time. But, then, Sonia Gandhi was more cued to the “Gaza genocide” with ‘Operation Sindoor’ far from her thoughts while LoP Rahul Gandhi was troubled by what Shashi Tharoor was cooking and what Manish Tewari was catering?
Shah came prepared to attack the Congress, the Congress alone. Shah accused the Congress of not getting back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. “Yesterday, they (Congress) were raising questions about why there was no war….Today, PoK exists only because of Jawaharlal Nehru…In 1960, they gave 80% of the Indus waters to Pakistan….In 1971…they forgot about PoK. If they had taken PoK then, we would not have to carry out attacks on camps there now.”
But it was P Chidambaram, former Congress big-shot, the veteran Congress leader who wanted proof the terrorists were Pakistani, who Shah latched on to, asking, “Pakistan ko bacha kar aapko kya milega?” Shah spoke of voter ID numbers, and Pakistani-made chocolate wrappers as evidence to nail Chidambaram. Shah said people who took food for the terrorists were “evidence”.
Shah said the terrorists identified by four people the police had detained for helping the terrorists. Shah also spoke of ballistic tests and material sent to Forensic science Laboratory, Chandigarh. All in all, a command performance by an “expert” who knew his brief and job too well.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah made it easy for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister could carry on with whatever political and diplomatic agenda the government had in mind. The government agreed to the special Operation Sindoor debate after preparing for it well ahead, the Opposition wasn’t as well prepared.
Shashi Tharoor was suspect having made up his mind on Pakistan and Manish Tewari wasn’t about to toe Rahul Gandhi’s line. As for Sonia Gandhi she made it clear that ‘Gaza’ had left he shattered and she had no time for ‘Operation Sindoor’ or ‘Pahalgam’ or ‘Pakistan’. Sonia Gandhi couldn’t have found a more wrong time to “write her Gaza Op-ed” than when Parliament was discussing ‘India, Pakistan and Operation Sindoor’. (IPA Service)
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