By Sushil Kutty
“When Ravana crossed… and when Pakistan crossed”, both times red lines drawn by “India” were breached. Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju posted this on ‘X’, invoking Ramayana and talking about the “special debate” on ‘Operation Sindoor’ in the Lok Sabha. “When Pakistan crossed the red lines drawn by India, terrorist camps faced the fire,” Rijiju wrote.
The discussion in the Lok Sabha refused to take off on time as Lok Sabha members of opposition parties kept up a din and Speaker Om Birla choosing to adjourn the House as the MPs made sure the House didn’t function.
The full-throated bellows of the honourable opposition members of the august Lower House of Parliament had to be heard to be understood, which was difficult and almost impossible.
The four-day “unfinished Operation Sindoor” on the India-Pakistan border from May 7-May 10 was less noisy than the ‘Operation Sindoor’ in the Lok Sabha on Monday with the House set for the discussion but not discussing at all.
Earlier, in the morning, Opposition MPs “gathered at the Makar Dwar” and tested their banner of revolt. Later, with operation disruption, Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House till 1pm.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar were scheduled to speak and from the Opposition benches, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s name was doing the rounds along with NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Supriya Sule.
The names of LoP Rahul Gandhi and Gaurav Gogoi, too.
Rahul Gandhi had asked that Prime Minister Narendra Modi shouldn’t absent himself and should be present for the entirety of the discussion. But after Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House till 1pm, Rijiju castigated the Opposition for creating a “ruckacious” atmosphere in the House, why?
Rijiju also divulged that the Opposition was insisting on a caveat, i.e., schedule a discussion on ‘SIR in Bihar’ in the immediate aftermath of the discussion on ‘Operation Sindoor’.
“Give us a guarantee,” the Opposition told the government. “A guaranteed discussion on SIR.”
The surprise caveat and the opposition tactic – strategy, if you must – looked set to be working as it dawned on the treasury that ‘SIR’ outranked ‘Operation Sindoor’ in the opposition sweepstakes.
The government had promised a discussion on ‘SIR’, too. But a tame ‘SIR’ debate wouldn’t serve the Opposition’s purpose. Highlighting fiddling with electoral rolls, including deleting voter names, pronouncing thousands of voters “dead”, couldn’t be left unchallenged.
‘SIR’ called for at least a couple of pandemoniums and a few timely ruckuses. Earlier, ahead of the proposed ‘Operation Sindoor’ debate, Rijiju brought “Ramayana” to evoke ‘Operation Sindoor’.
But Congress leader P Chidambaram had already given a “clean chit” to Pakistan, asking the government “where’s the evidence of Pakistan’s involvement?”
Chidambaram was alluding to “homegrown terrorists” and the fault lay squarely with the Modi government, which still hasn’t proven Pakistan’s involvement in Pahalgam.
True, the United States has named LeT off-shoot ‘The Resistance Force (TRF)’ a global terror outfit and so has the United Nations, but where is the evidence linking TRF to the deadly ‘Pahalgam’ terror killings? The TRF initially claimed responsibility but later retracted.
Calling ‘Operation Sindoor’ ‘Ramayana’ doesn’t prove Pakistan is ‘Ravana’ and will not work till as long as ‘Ravana’ remains at large and the four TRF perpetrators haven’t been named, traced and punished.
Minister Rijiju says it would be wrong to spread the. “misinformation and disinformation” that the Pahalgam terror attack “was going unpunished” and the TV anchor with Modi his role-model declaring that discussing “Operation Sindoor'” is tantamount to blasphemy, there was no idea where the special debate would go.
Is the Army beyond discussion? The one asking for the discussion and the one allowing the discussion are both wrong, says he, cooly forgetting that he himself has been discussing ‘Operation Sindoor’ with Pakistani guests on his primetime show! Some people are irreparably irretrievable and this guy is unfailingly so.
But as far as the government is concerned, Minister Kiren Rijiju invoked the Hindu epic Ramayana and that was as if enough in terms of Indian action on Pakistan, done and dusted with, forget the oft-repeated statement “Operation Sindoor is still on”.
Can we have final closure on ‘Operation Sindoor’? For that, the perpetrators have to be identified and cornered and eliminated. When will that take place, nobody knows, least of all the government; where is NSA Ajit Doval and the “unknown men”?
The discussion on Operation Sindoor can’t stop at terror camps struck, airbases destroyed and Pakistani lies exposed. The discussion will stray into United States President Donald Trump’s path and take up “Trump forcing a ceasefire” on both India and Pakistan.
Why is Trump adamant in taking credit for the ceasefire? Also, will Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his reply to the discussion rebut and shut Trump up once and for all?
So far all we have got out of the government is the epic Ramayana. Rijiju also posted a song in Kailash Kher’s voice, with the lyrics saying the operation was for India’s “aan, baan, swabhimaan”, with PM Modi dedicating ‘Operation Sindoor’ to “every mother, sister and daughter of the country.”
That apart, the government earmarked 16 hours for the special debate in the Lok Sabha with the Rajya Sabha to have a debate for a similar duration on Tuesday, July 29.
The Opposition had been asking for this special debate for days and then when it “was happening” came the breaking news that LeT/TRF “commander Suleiman Musa”, one of the four terrorists who perpetrated the Pahalgam killings, had been killed by the Indian Army in what is being called “Operation Mahadev”.
The timing could not have been more symbolic. Truly mysterious, too. The government is intriguing. Pahalgam was an intelligence failure and open violation of India’s border by terrorists.
There is also no accountability. NSA Doval got away lightly with the man himself attempting to be recognized as a hero with some of his statements made on ‘Operation Sindoor’ given the kind of publicity and credit he doesn’t deserve.
Come to think of it, the ongoing “Operation Bangladeshi Infiltrators” is the same; open violation of India’s borders and the corruption that allows these infiltrators to get the documentation and wherewithal from the “enemy within”.
The Modi government cannot seem to have any clue on how to safeguard India’s borders, one of the longest and one of the most vulnerable and porous in the world.
There are umpteen reasons why the “special debate” on ‘Operation Sindoor’ should be brought to a conclusion and it shouldn’t be only about the “deadly Pahalgam terror attack” alone.
The Modi government shouldn’t be allowed to go scot-free and making scapegoats out of Pakistan should be done only with evidence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be present for the entirety of the “special debate” because it has to be proved beyond doubt that it was Prime Minister Modi who brought the Pakistani establishment to its knees and not “Modi’s friend President Donald Trump”.
Finally, how well the government defends India’s armed forces will be crucial and keenly watched; for, from the sounds of the first opposition speakers, the Opposition will not hesitate at targeting India’s armed forces, including the IAF and the “Rafales”, “how many fighter jets were shot down”? The government’s most valuable asset will be without parallel Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. (IPA Service)
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