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'Defence minister spoke a lot, but didn't answer…': Congress MP Gogoi on Pahalgam attack in Op Sindoor debate
Gaurav Gogoi says the opposition sought special debate on Operation Sindoor ‘precisely to ask these questions’, and govt ‘must tell the truth now’
Speaking right after defence minister Rajnath Singh shared details of how India carried out Operation Sindoor against Pakistan after a terror attack in Pahalgam, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi accused him of not addressing core questions.
“This is the age of war of information. The honourable minister spoke a lot, but did not answer how the terrorists could reach Pahalgam at all, and managed to slaughter 26 people there,” Gogoi, deputy leader if the Congress in the Lok Sabha, said.
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He said the Opposition had sought the special debate on Operation Sindoor “precisely to ask these questions”. Gogoi said the government must take responsibility, and not "hide behind" Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, who recently took “moral responsibility” for what he called a “security failure”.
Gogoi started his speech by saying that “certain forces were at work to spread wrong information” after the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered “political speeches” in Bihar, after completing his ongoing Saudi Arabia trip at the time of the Pahalgam attack, “rather than visit the affected region immediately”.
“Only our leader Rahul Gandhi went there to meet people who were affected,” he said, as ruling alliance members sought to shout him down.
Earlier, starting the debate, minister Rajnath Singh equated India's action with Lord Hanuman's burning of Ravan's Lanka in the Hindu epic Ramayan.
Rajnath Singh, giving details of the operation, stressed that India had acted in self-defence and in retaliation after three armed terrorists killed 26 men in Pahalgam, a tourist destination in Jammu and Kashmir.
Operation Sindoor was launched in the early hours of May 7, specifically between 1:05 and 1:30 am. The operation involved missile strikes on nine terrorist targets, the government said.
