External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar asserted Wednesday that there was no third-party intervention in ensuring a ceasefire between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, making it clear that it was not linked to trade as claimed by US President Donald Trump.
Intervening in the special discussion on Operation Sindoor and Pahalgam terror attack in the Rajya Sabha, Jaishankar castigated the Congress over its governments’ apathetic response to the incidents of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
During his hour-long speech, he referred to the previous Congress-led UPA government’s “inaction” in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, saying “there is a Congress normal… and a Modi normal”.
“There is a Congress normal, which I spoke about, and there is a (Narendra) Modi normal… The Modi normal is terrorists are not proxies. Number two, cross-border terrorism will get an appropriate response in our way, at our time. Three, talks and terror will not go together. If there are talks, it will only be about terror. Number four, we will not give in to nuclear blackmail. And number five, terrorism and good neighbourliness cannot go together,” he said.
The Opposition MPs kept their guns trained on the government, asking it to come clean on President Trump’s claims of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Apart from Jaishankar, Leader of the House J P Nadda, the BJP president, also slammed the Congress for its “appeasement” of Pakistan.
Taking on the Opposition, Jaishankar said, “Kaan khol ke sun lein (listen carefully), April 22 se June 16 tak ek bhi phone call President (Donald) Trump and Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi ke beech mein nahi huyi
PM Modi and President Trump did not have any phone calls between April 22, when the Pahalgam attack took place, and June 16,” he said.
He took a jibe at Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh as “China gurus”, who took “private tuitions” from Chinese diplomats.
The Congress recently questioned Jaishankar’s visit to China, while Gandhi flagged a “two-front challenge” from China and Pakistan while attacking the Modi government.
Nadda mounted a scathing attack on the Congress for its “appeasement” of Pakistan during the UPA regime between 2004-2014 despite numerous terror attacks. He likened the Modi government’s tenure as a period of ‘full moon’ as against amavasya (dark period) of the Congress rule.
“We are a responsive, responsible, sensitive, pro-active government who responds as per need of the hour, whereas your (Congress rule) was inactive, lukewarm, non-reactive, non-responsive. Only when you see the full sequence and chronology of the dark period, can you appreciate the period that came afterwards,” he said.
RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha said the pain of those who had lost their lives in the Pahalgam attack necessitated an apology from the government as it showed that no lessons had been learnt from similar incidents in the past.
He appealed for a full-fledged statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, and proposed the adoption of a resolution condemning President Trump for claiming credit for the ceasefire. “Come clean, we are with you Prime Minister…I propose a resolution that ‘This House unilaterally condemns the repeated statements of American President Donald Trump,” he said.
CPI(M) MP John Brittas said that under the Modi government a new normal meant the “celebration of failure”. “Pulwama would be the biggest intelligence and security failure in the history of Independent India. There was deliberate, criminal negligence and you mixed it with hubris,” he said.
Brittas recalled the resignations of then Union home minister Shivraj Patil following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and questioned the Modi government over its accountability over the Pahalgam attack.
“They depicted Amit Shah as the second Sardar Patel. Will history judge Shah as morally inferior to Shivraj Patil?” he asked.
