The principle opposition party, Congress, has never extended its whole hearted support to the success of Operation Sindoor launched by Modi government against Pakistan. It expressed series of doubts on the whole issue of cross border terrorism including the Pahalgam massacre of innocent Hindu tourists and consequential retaliation, code named Operation Sindoor.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress President, wants the nation to believe that Prime Minister has the prior knowledge of the terror activity at Pahalgam but has not shared that with the public, thus putting the lives lost in the valley. Kharge cites the cancellation of the scheduled trip to Kashmir by PM Modi as the proof for his allegation. He called operation Sindoor as a small war while addressing his party gathering in Karnataka on the eve of completion of 2 year ruling in the state. Rahul Gandhi on the other hand makes another serious allegation of the external affairs minister Jai Sankar, passing on the information of our military retaliation to the government of Pakistan, thus jeopardising the lives of the Indian Air Force pilots. There was no official response to these two serious allegations from the ruling dispensation but it played its own kind of operation sindoor on the opposition which eventually exposed the internal differences not only in Congress but also the cracked the opposition unity, as I.N.D.I.A partners took different routes in defending or opposing the Modi government latest moves.
Modi government decision to send Indian delegations comprising MPs of all parties to different countries as a part of the outreach post-Operation Sindoor, to put forward Indian position vis a vis the terrorist grooming Pakistan. The delegations are also expected to explain the facts on the suspension of Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan. The political parties were requested to nominate their party members and Congress surprisingly picked of Gaurav Gogoi, whose wife is working with a Pakistan based NGO and he himself is yet to explain his recent visits to our neighbour. Another MP whose supporters has raised pro-Pakistan slogans in his victory march. The Modi government move to reject the party nominations and picking up through personal contact two prominent, well known experts in foreign affairs has hurt the Congress party. The official spokesperson Jairam Ramesh lampooned the BJP move as totally against the parliamentary democracy norms where everything should go through the party.
Congress couldn’t ask the members not to join the delegation because of the mood of the members and the nation. Sashi Tharoor, the Tiruvanathapuram MP, announced his intention to head the multi-party delegation despite his party not nomination him. It is a “national duty” they are “performing” claimed both Tharoor and Manish Tiwari, the other Congress MP picked up by the Centre. While the Congress top leaders accuse Modi of succumbing to the pressure of American President Donald Trump and meekly announce the ceasefire, unlike Indira Gandhi who stood firmly against then President of US Nixon. That way Congress thought they can score politically. However, the Congress party’s other member in the delegation Salman Khurshid, deflated the force of Congress criticism by confirming the Bharat position that “there was no mediation by any third party and ceasefire decision was made at Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMO) of both the countries. These words coming from a senior party leader and a person who held ministerial position in the external affairs is certainly an indictment for Congress high command. Khurshid’d statement that “our internal politics can’t be carried to the soils of foreign countries” is a message of significance to leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi, who often flies to foreign countries to lambast Indian government headed by Modi on different political issues. Sensing the changed mood, the Congress party is forced to announce its no objection on the names picked up by Modi government without the consulting their party.
The Congress party high command’s attitude of continued criticism of Modi government on the Operation Sindoor without concrete proof made the partners of I.N.D.I.A to pick their own political path. The DMK joined the proposed delegation without any fuss. The RJD can’t talk negatively unlike its senior partner Congress in the alliance, on Operation Sindoor as it was led by Bihar born Air Marshall A.K. Bharti. Both Mamata Banerjee of TMC and Akhilesh Yadav of SP are in no mood to stretch the criticism on Operation Sindoor as that is likely to move away the Hindu voters further because of their pro-Muslim politics in Bengal and Uttar Pradesh respectively. AAP, BSP are still to recover from their political decimation and formulate any position of pro or against stand on Operation Sindoor. The Communists who became irrelevant beyond Kerala is more worried about their third successive victory in 2026 election rather joining the issue concerned with fellow Malayali Sashi Tharoor and his rebellion in Congress.
The political situation in the opposition camp on post-Operation Sindoor and its mis match with BJP was publicly conceded by another Congress senior leader P. Chidambaram. He doubted the intact position of the INDI block parties as the political bonds cracked some time back and they are widening with no chance to fill that. The negotiating team member of INDI alliance, Salman Khurshid, himself joined the Modi government selected team to travel abroad and explain the Modi government position on Operation Sindoor.
It is desperate political situation for the opposition parties as the Operation Sindoor, originally aimed at Pakistan and neutralised that country has hit them as hard as it hit neighbouring terror sponsoring country. It is estimated that Pakistan will take at least three to four years from the damage caused by Operation Sindoor and it is any body’s guess how long it will take INDI alliance to recover and confidently face BJP in the back drop P. Chidambaram’s defeat conceding “we are no match to BJP political machinery public statement.
By Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao
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Comments (1)
The issues and the dilemma of Congress and it's alliance are well presented.