Kolkata: Operation Sindoor, followed by India’s fitting response to Pakistan’s attempted retaliation struck a chord across the length and breadth of our country.
Multiple delegations comprising politicians from all parties are still visiting several nations to put across firm stand and zero-tolerance policy against terrorism, which resulted in India’s Operation Sindoor to avenge the deadly Pahalgam massacre of April 22.
Yet, some Opposition leaders have started to politicise Operation Sindoor.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and West Bengal minister Udayan Guha launched a personal attack on Narendra Modi, without taking the Prime Minister’s name, a day ahead of the latter’s first visit to the state since Operation Sindoor.
“Earlier some people used to trade in tea, now they are doing sindoor (vermilion) business. Some used to sell hot tea, now hot vermilion is flowing in their blood. They are coming all the way to Alipurduar in North Bengal to sell that vermilion,” said Guha, minister for North Bengal Development, at a government event in Dinhata.
Accusing PM Modi of trying to deepen religious divisions, Guha said: “Don’t try to inject poison into the people in this way. Don’t try to create division among people by injecting poison into the people… by injecting religious poison.”
BJP demands ouster of Guha
BJP was quick to pounce on Guha, who is known to make controversial comments.
The saffron party’s Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar said Guha’s comments amount to “treason” and demanded his removal from the cabinet.
“Guha has made a comment that is not only utterly condemnable but amounts to treason! At a time when the entire nation is celebrating the success of Operation Sindoor — Udayan Guha, a minister in the West Bengal government, is saying that sindoor is being sold as a business. It is an insult to every martyr who was killed in the Islamist terrorist attack in Pahalgam, an insult to India’s security forces! For such a disgraceful and reprehensible comment, the Chief Minister of West Bengal @MamataOfficial must immediately remove Udayan Guha from the cabinet,” Majumdar wrote on X.
BJP’s state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay said the ‘true face’ of the TMC has been exposed.
“It’s been over 24 hours since the remark surfaced, yet not a single word of condemnation has come from the Trinamool Congress. It shows that the party stands by Udayan Guha’s comment. Once again, TMC proves itself to be anti-national, pro-terrorist, and pro-Pakistan,” Chattopadhyay said.
TMC has joined the Central government’s Operation Sindoor diplomacy mission, with its MP Abhishek Banerjee being part of the first delegation which flew out of India over the weekend.
However, some TMC leaders, including Guha and Sagarika Ghose, have accused the BJP of politicising the operation.
“For the BJP to try to politicise Operation Sindoor through political rallies is highly unacceptable. It is the politics of spectacle, it is the politics of drama and it is the politics of histrionics,” TMC’s Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika said recently.
