Parliament Session Highlights: Shah slams Oppn over inaction against terrorism; LS, RS adjourned till tomorrow

Amit Shah said in Rajya Sabha, "Had I been in a decisive position, the agreement to divide Mother India would never have been signed. The country continues to suffer because of that decision. They embarrassed India on international platforms when it came to terrorism. After the Mumbai attacks, the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit took place, remembered as the Balochistan blunder, where it was proposed that both India and Pakistan are victims of terrorism."

"Our civilians and soldiers were killed, and yet they gave a clean chit to Pakistan. Manmohan Singh accepted it. He even stated that there was no link between terror attacks and dialogue. Thank God, Narendra Modi became Prime Minister and put a stop to this. There will be no talks until terrorism ends," he added.

Union home minister Amit Shah alleged in Rajya Sabha that Sonia Gandhi cried when Batla House terrorists were killed.

"Sonia Gandhi cried when terrorists involved in the Batla House encounter were killed. Now they are asking me where the terrorists went. But what about the criminals and terrorists who escaped during the Congress tenure?" he asked.

Union home minister Amit Shah, while replying on the debate on Operation Sindoor in Rajya Sabha, said, "BJP’s first National President, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, sacrificed a lot for Article 370 and was ultimately killed. This created space for the growth of separatist groups. We clearly gave Pakistan an opportunity to poison the minds of our youth."

"Kashmir first became a cause for separatist groups, who then started demanding independence. Groups like Jamaat-e-Islami spread unreasonable ideas among the youth, allowing separatist sentiments to grow. Subsequently, Pakistan created terrorist groups, and previous governments maintained talks with these terror groups, which led to an increase in terrorism in India," he added.

Union home minister Amit Shah asked Congress party that despite several terrorist attacks, "what did they do from 2005 to 2011?" what concrete steps did they take?"

"When did they initiate surgical strikes, air strikes, or Operation Sindoor against Pakistan? The Congress party owes an explanation to the nation. Today, I can proudly say that under the current government, there have been no terrorist attacks across India except in Kashmir. When there was the attack in Uri, we conducted a surgical strike; when there was the Pulwama attack, we launched an air strike. Pakistan is still not willing to improve relations. We responded decisively to the Pahalgam attack as well," he added.

On opposition walkout from Rajya Sabha, CPI(M) MP Sandosh Kumar said that in the House, "It was another episode of Amit Shah's arrogance from the very beginning itself."

"Our genuine demand was to make sure that the Prime Minister is ready to reply. We had a 16-hour-long discussion, and all parties cooperated. We even cooperated with the government in sending a delegation abroad... Home Minister said that he is enough to reply, we don't need such arrogance, we need more humility," he told news agency ANI.

DMK MP Tiruchi Siva explained why the Opposition walked out of the Rajya Sabha and said that they expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be present in the House and reply to all their questions.

"The debate on the Pahalgam attack went on for 16 hours each, in the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha... We expected the Prime Minister to come and reply to all our questions, since he is the head of the Government... We don't want the Home Minister to reply on behalf of the Prime Minister... It seems there is no use of us spending 16 hours on this debate," he told ANI.

After the conclusion of home minister Amit Shah's speech, the Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 11 AM on Thursday, July 31.

Amit Shah said in Rajya Sabha, "Modi ji sent me to General Sinha’s residence, where I spent three days. General Sinha shared all the details with me. Modi ji (Prime Minister Modi) himself held several meetings, though he doesn’t speak about what he does, I am aware of some of it. Many sarpanches had met him, and I received feedback on their needs from a party perspective. He met with youth, religious leaders, people from Jammu, residents of the Valley, and even MPs from the National Conference."

"There has been extensive deliberation on this matter since 2014. And after all this reflection, today I can confidently say that terrorism in Kashmir is on the verge of being eradicated. There was a time when Pakistan didn’t even need to send terrorists, as our own Kashmiri youth would pick up weapons. But today, I am presenting the data from the last six months in this House, not a single Kashmiri youth has been recruited into any terrorist organisation. All those being neutralised now are Pakistanis," he added.

Union home minister Amit Shah said, "Congress is India's oldest party and they and their allies have ruled the nation for the longest... Today, I would like to say that BJP has brought down the violence in both North East Insurgency and Left Wing Extremism by 75 percent."

Union home minister Amit Shah said in Rajya Sabha, "I admit that even today Pakistan is able to do some terrorist attacks and there is infiltration, but the number of incidents is reducing. The Narendra Modi government is committed to ending terrorism and infiltration."

Union home minister Amit Shah said, Chidambaram said that it cannot be said that Operation Sindoor was decisive. I would like to respond to him, even though he is not (present) here. Were the 1965 and 1971 wars decisive? If yes, then why did terrorism continue to spread? Until the enemy is either afraid or reformed, there won’t be a decisive end. For all these years, no action was taken to intimidate them, so why would they be afraid? ... I can proudly say that no Hindu can ever be a terrorist."

Union home minister Amit Shah said in Rajya Sabha, "Prithviraj Chavan has said that the government knows nothing except naming operations on the basis of religion. But the Congress doesn’t understand that 'Har Har Mahadev' is not just a religious slogan...They see everything from the angle of Hindu-Muslim."

Home minister Amit Shah, while speaking in Rajya Sabha during the ongoing debate on Operation Sindoor, said, "On April 30, Indian forces were given complete freedom to act by Prime Minister Modi. The Defence Ministry and our armed forces jointly decided the target, strategy, location, and timing of the operation. Our soldiers executed the mission with utmost bravery, and I respectfully commend their success."

"On the night of May 7, nine terrorist bases were destroyed inside Pakistan. As mentioned by the Defence Minister in the Lok Sabha, over 100 terrorists were killed. The headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, and Jaish-e-Mohammed were among those destroyed, this was made possible by the Modi government and our courageous forces. Multiple key locations were eliminated in the operation," he added.

Union home minister Amit Shah explained India's actions against Pakistan after the April 22 Pahalgam attack.

"In the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting, it was decided to halt the flow of Indus River water, a reversal of the one-sided decision made by the Jawaharlal Nehru government in 1960. Within 24 hours, we also began the process of sending back Pakistani nationals residing in India," he said.

Amit Shah said, "I want to tell the Congress party, it was you who gave away Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), but it is the BJP that will bring it back. We carried out targeted strikes on terrorist hideouts, on their headquarters, their organisations, their their training camps and launching pads. Our attack was on terrorism, but Pakistan mistook it as an attack on itself."

Home minister Amit Shah said in Rajya Sabha that Congress does not have any right to ask the BJP any questions about terrorism. He said, "The only reason terrorism spread in the country was because of Congress' votebank and appeasement politics."

Amit Shah slammed the previous Congress-led UPA government and said that earlier India only used to keep sending dossiers to Pakistan after terror attacks.

But today, he said, "(Prime Minister) Narendra Modi gave a reply to them (Pakistan) with airstrike and surgical strike...Khauf paida ho gaya."

Amit Shah said in Rajya Sabha, "We attacked their (Pakistan) terror camps, terror launching pads and terror training camps, but they (Pakistan) considered it as an attack on their country. As a response, on 8th May, Pakistan attacked residential areas in India and defence installations. On 9th May, India attacked and destroyed Pakistan's 11 defence installations and airbases...After this, Pakistan was not in a position to fight back."

He added that after this the Pakistan DGMO came to his knees to request India for the cessation of hostilities.

Union home minister Amit Shah said in Rajya Sabha, "Mr. P. Chidambaram demanded my resignation and questioned the Indian government’s Operation Sindoor. He repeatedly challenged the evidence that those involved in the Pahalgam attack were Pakistani terrorists. Today, I want to ask him, who was he trying to protect? Pakistan? Lashkar-e-Taiba? Or the terrorists themselves? Aren’t you ashamed of this? But by God’s grace, on the very day he raised these questions, all three terrorists were killed.”

Union home minister Amit Shah, while speaking in Rajya Sabha during the ongoing debate on Operation Sindoor, said, "Today, standing in this House, I promise that Jammu & Kashmir will be free from terrorism. This is the resolve of the Narendra Modi government."

Home minister Amit Shah pointed out the Congress's questioning over the timing of killing of Pahalgam terrorists, asking whether they asked so because of Rahul Gandhi's scheduled speech in Lok Sabha.

"Yesterday, you (Congress) were asking why they(Pahalgam terrorists) were killed on this day? Why should they not have been killed yesterday? Because Rahul Gandhi was supposed to deliver his speech? It doesn't work like this. The entire country is seeing that Congress' priority is not national security and ending terrorism but it is politics, their vote bank and appeasement politics," Shah said in Rajya Sabha.

Recounting his visit to Pahalgam soon after the terror attack on April 22, Amit Shah said that it was a horrifying, heartbreaking scene.

Home minister Amit Shah said that all three terrorists, who were involved in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, who were killed under Operation Mahadev, were shot in the head. "Teeno ke sar mei goli lagi hai," he said.

Opposition staged a walkout from Rajya Sabha over the absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during home minister Amit Shah's speech in the debate on Operation Sindoor.