• Indian PM briefs parliament on Operation Sindoor, claims to have ‘taught Pakistan a lesson’
• Amit Shah says three Pahalgam attackers killed; Farooq Abdullah wonders whether they were the same men
• Congress leader challenges Modi to say ‘Trump is lying’ on role in ending hostilities with Pakistan

NEW DELHI: In a bedlam of barbs and innuendoes in India’s parliament on Tuesday, the BJP government claimed teaching Pakistan a lesson in their recent military standoff.

But the leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of cowardice in not taking Pakistan head-on, while forcing the army and the air force to avoid military targets at the start of the war.

India, Mr Gandhi added, could not afford Modi as prime minister.

For his part, the Indian PM applauded his achievements in the hunt for those who killed 26 Hindu tourists in Pahalgam on April 22.

As if on cue, Home Minister Amit Shah announced that three of the terrorists had been killed and that two of them were identified as members of the now-defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Farooq Abdullah, a former chief minister of India-held Kashmir, welcomed Shah’s claim with a caveat, wondering if they were indeed the same men who attacked tourists in scenic Pahalgam.

Claiming all-round success in the short war, Narendra Modi kept scrupulously silent on the losses of Indian aircraft in the air battle with the Pakistan Air Force.

He spoke in Hindi, with plenty of pauses for dramatic effect. Like when he spoke about how the opposition leaders were asking why he did not take back Azad Kashmir: “Who else can they ask this to except me?”

India, he said, had called Pakistan’s “nuclear bluff”, and showed the world it would no longer be cowed by threats of escalation.

Shift in strategic posture

He claimed India struck “terror bases deep inside Pakistan” in just 22 minutes after the April 22 Pahalgam attack, and that “Islamabad’s sabre-rattling, including veiled nuclear threats, did not stop India from responding forcefully”.

It is worth noting that Indian military officials have previously said there was never a moment of nuclear threat from either side.

“Pakistan had some inkling of Indian action and started issuing nuclear threats, but could do nothing when terror targets were hit,” Modi said.

“India responds on its own terms; bullets will be met with cannons.”

This response, he claimed, exposed the limits of Pakistan’s deterrence and revealed a shift in India’s strategic posture. “Only three countries spoke for Pakistan at the UN,” he said, but didn’t say how many spoke for India.

Rahul Gandhi had said in his speech that many countries had condemned terrorism, but none had condemned Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack on April 22.

“No leader of any country asked India to stop any action in its defence against terror,” PM Modi said.

US Vice President J.D. Vance had tried calling him “three-four times” during Operation Sindoor, the Indian PM claimed, but he was too busy in high-level meetings with the armed forces.

Rahul’s challenge to Modi

Before Mr Modi’s speech, Rahul Gandhi had thrown a dare at the PM, pointing out President Donald Trump’s repeated claims of having stopped the war between India and Pakistan. “If Trump is lying, let Modi say he is lying,” Rahul had said.

Modi claimed Operation Sindoor had “planted India’s flag firmly in the global defence market” and there was an increasing interest in India-made munitions.

He also repeated the Indian claim that Pakistani military officials pleaded for a halt in hostilities.

He said former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had cost India dearly with the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. Modi called the treaty as unfair to India’s farmers, saying “blood and water cannot flow together”.

There was no mention of the losses India suffered in the prime minister’s speech. Several opposition leaders in both houses had asked for details on how many fighter jets, including Rafales, were lost.

Mr Gandhi claimed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had himself revealed that the Director General of Military Operations was told by the Government of India to ask for a ceasefire just 30 minutes after Operation Sindoor began. “You told them we will not hit military targets; we do not want escalation.”

“The government of India informed the government of Pakistan that we have no political will, and we will not fight,” he said.

Mr Gandhi also quoted Captain Shiv Kumar, India’s defence attache to Indonesia, as saying that India had lost some aircraft and that happened only because of the constraints given by the political leadership not to attack air defence and military targets. “You tied their hands behind their backs and the defence minister has said this in parliament itself.”

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2025