Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, accusing it of mismanaging ‘Operation Sindoor’ and inadvertently fostering a stronger alliance between Pakistan and China. Gandhi claimed that the Modi government's foreign policy missteps have not only failed to isolate Pakistan but have instead brought it closer to China, creating a formidable challenge for India's regional security.
“Operation Sindoor was meant to send a message of strength, but instead, it has emboldened our adversaries,” Gandhi said. “The Modi government’s actions have pushed Pakistan and China closer together, creating a united front that India has historically worked to prevent. This is not just a tactical error; it’s a strategic disaster“ and further added that “India’s biggest foreign policy challenge has been to keep Pakistan and China separate and I am sad to say you have destroyed the single biggest most important goal of Indian foreign policy- China and Pakistan are fused together.”
Gandhi pointed to China’s active support for Pakistan during the operation, including real-time intelligence sharing and the use of advanced weaponry like the J-10C fighter jets and PL-15E air-to-air missiles. He cited remarks by Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, who revealed that China provided Pakistan with critical inputs on India’s military movements during the four-day conflict, effectively turning the operation into a testing ground for Beijing’s network-centric warfare capabilities.
“Government of India thought they were fighting Pakistan but when they arrived they realised that they were not fighting Pakistan rather they were fighting China and Pakistan. That means Pakistani army, their airforce were attached with Chinese forces. The information available with the Pakistan were provided by China. China was feeding them critical battlefield information, satellite information to the Pakistan. If you had listened to me we wouldn’t have lost the fighter jets”, he said.
For decades, India’s foreign policy has aimed to prevent a robust Pakistan-China axis, recognising the security implications of such an alliance. Gandhi emphasised that previous governments, particularly under Congress leadership, worked diligently to maintain a delicate balance in the region. He referenced the 1971 India-Pakistan war, during which India, under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, successfully countered external pressures to secure a decisive victory and the creation of Bangladesh.
“India has always understood the dangers of a Pakistan-China alliance,” Gandhi stated. “Our diplomacy ensured that these two nations were never allowed to align too closely. But under the BJP, we’ve seen China openly backing Pakistan, not just diplomatically but militarily, during Operation Sindoor. This is a failure of leadership and vision. We are just not facing Pakistan or China but both China and Pakistan as together militarily” he remarked. The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday while responding in the course of the discussion had stated that the two front war concept is an old concept, negating any failure in foreign diplomacy. “I don’t understand what he is saying. The two front is gone but it has now become a unified front like what happened with Pakistan-China. He said every nation has condemned terrorism but he didn’t say that after the Pahalgam attack not a single country had condemned Pakistan. The man behind Pahalgam is Pakistan Chief of Army Staff Gen Munir and that man was called to White House, he sat next to US president having lunch with him” Rahul Gandhi had countered.
He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using the armed forces to protect his own image while reminding that during the military operation the union government neither had the political will not had given complete freedom to the armed forces during the military operation. Gandhi, joined by other opposition leaders, has demanded a detailed explanation from Prime Minister Modi on the ceasefire announced by former US President Donald Trump, which Gandhi claims undermined India’s position. He challenged Modi to clarify in Parliament whether any Indian aircraft were lost during the operation and to refute Trump’s assertions about brokering the ceasefire. “If the Prime Minister has the courage, let him stand in the Lok Sabha and declare that no jets were lost and that Trump’s claims are false,” Gandhi said. “The nation deserves transparency, not silence.”
