New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has once again heaped praise on Operation Sindoor and made it clear that US president Donald Trump had nothing to do with the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan on May 10.
The military operation has sent out a clear message that “we will not sit quietly if terror is unleashed on us”, he said.
“The successful strikes on the night of 9-10 May and the ability of India to intercept the attempted Pakistani response, when they sent missiles to Delhi on the morning of 10th May, is what contributed undoubtedly, and not Mr Trump, to the call by the Pakistani DGMO to his Indian counterpart asking for peace,” the MP said in his address during the book launch of ‘Whither India-Pakistan Relations Today? Can They Ever Be Good Neighbours?’.
India and Pakistan declared a ceasefire on May 10, days after India launched Operation Sindoor, following a call by Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) to his Indian counterpart.
Trump, however, claimed on several occasions that it is was upon his mediation that India and Pakistan reached a ceasefire agreement, and that he stopped a “nuclear war”. His claims have time and again been refuted by New Delhi, asserting that the truce was reached bilaterally.
The Congress has often questioned the government over Trump’s claims. Most recently, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi raked up the issue in Parliament seeking clarity on the US President’s claims. The Congress leader dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to directly confront Trump’s claims.
“If he has the courage, he will say here that Donald Trump is a liar. 50% Indira Gandhi ka courage hai toh ye bol dega,” Rahul Gandhi said in a dare of sorts to PM Modi and then went on to fix his reference to the prime minister saying, “bol denge, sorry.”
Tharoor, meanwhile, has always stood by the government’s version of how the cessation of operations came about.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP also recalled writing an op-ed after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.
“At the end of the day, India did not have very much choice on how to react to all this… Couple of days after Pahalgam, I wrote an op-ed advocating precisely this… You can imagine my satisfaction and semi-disbelief that I didnt realise anyone in Delhi would be reading my op-ed… Which is why I was such an enthusiastic supporter of it. It followed exactly the course of action I had advised in my op-ed,” he said.
India launched strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on May 7, in response to the Pahalgam attack. Over 100 terrorists were killed, and Pakistan reacted by attempting missile and drone attacks on Indian military installations.
Finally, on the morning of May 10, India dealt a severe blow by carrying out precision missile strikes on Pakistani air bases, including those at Rafiqui, Murid, Chaklala, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Chunian.
