Asserting that the Pahalgam terror attack was absolutely unacceptable, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday Pakistan crossed the red line and there had to be accountability and justice.
Making this point in the Rajya Sabha while intervening during the special discussion on Operation Sindoor, he also stressed that “Blood and water will not flow together,” providing reasons for India’s decision to suspend the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan.
Jaishankar said the Modi Government has corrected the wrongs of Nehru’s policies by suspending the Treaty. The Treaty signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was not to buy peace, but for appeasement, he added. The External Affairs Minister said terrorism is now on the global agenda only because of the efforts of the Modi Government.
He said India will not tolerate any cross-border terrorism and has responded to Pakistan by
carrying out Operation Sindoor and will continue to do so.
“When the Pahalgam attack happened on April 22, it was a shocking attack for a variety of reasons. The manner in which people were killed in front of their families, the fact that their faith was asked before killing them, the intent of destroying the economy of Jammu and Kashmir, which had returned to normalcy and prosperity after the end of Article 370. All of this angered the country,” he said.
The Minister said there was grief and shock across the world. There was solidarity and sympathy. “But the question was, what after that? And the answers were two. One, such an attack was absolutely unacceptable. It crossed our red line. There had to be severe consequences.
“And two, there had to be accountability and justice. There had to be accountability of the perpetrators, and they and their supporters had to be brought to justice. Now, the first clear message, of India’s anger, of our resolve, of our determination, was the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security immediately the day after, from April 23,” he said.
In his nearly hour-long speech, Jaishankar said Operation Sindoor also did a global service as India reduced to dust terror infrastructure in Pakistan, including in Bahawalpur and Muridke.
He also chided certain opposition party leaders for mocking India’s military action against Pakistan, if they have any doubts, they should watch videos of funerals of terrorists in Pakistan and destruction of airfields in the neighbouring country.
He emphasised India will keep responding to each terror attack in the same way.
Certain opposition party members had raised the issue of Jaishankar’s recent visit to China. To this, the Minister said he visited China to discuss terrorism, de-escalation, and trade restrictions. “I had no secret meeting,” he said. He launched a veiled attack at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi dubbing him as “China-guru” and alleging that such people got their knowledge on China by attending Olympics in Beijing and by taking special tuitions from the Chinese Ambassador.
Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had attended the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a special invitee. He said cooperation between Pakistan and China started in the 1960s, but the previous Governments in India did not deal with the neighbour
properly. “But there are ‘China-gurus’ now and one sir is sitting across from me, whose affection for China is so great that he made a deal between India and China — ‘Chindia’. They had so much love for China.
Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha JP tore into the Opposition for its “appeasement” of Pakistan, saying that the Congress-led UPA regime during 2004-14 did not take any action against the neighbouring country despite repeated terror attacks. Asserting that the Government condemns the Pahalgam terror attack “in one voice”, Nadda said, “The Home Minister of our sensitive Government was in Kashmir at 5 pm on the day of the attack while the Prime Minister cut short his Saudi Arabia visit”.
He further said the political leadership is extremely important as it gives directions to the armed forces. Nadda said there is a difference between a responsible, sensitive, proactive Government and a Government which responds according to the need of the hour and a lukewarm, non-reactive Government.
Opposition MPs slammed the Government over Operation Sindoor, with Congress’ Akhilesh Prasad Singh alleging that the political leadership lost the gains made by the forces, while BJP MP K Lakshman accused the Opposition of asking for “evidence” of the actions against terrorists.
BJP MP Ghulam Ali accused Congress, NC, and other local parties of indulging in “pseudo secularism”, and said the narrative is now being changed. Independent MP Kartikeya Sharma said the aim of the debate was to tell the nation about the courage of India forces.