Siding With Pak, China: BJP's Jay Panda Trashes Congress Questions On Op Sindoor

The BJP's Jay Panda today ripped into the Congress over its plans to corner the government on Pahalgam attack and the subsequent Operation Sindoor in the upcoming session of parliament, saying their stance plays into the hands of Pakistan and its all-weather ally China.

In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Mr Panda said, "The Congress leaders' stance raises questions since they play into the narrative -- the propaganda being spread by Pakistan and China". 

The comments of these "two or three top Congress leaders" are repeatedly being played by the media in the two nations. They are discussed in the Pakistani National Assembly. "That should cause them to introspect and think why is it that their stand is being cheered by Pakistan," he said.  

As a representative of the country for the government's outreach programme on Operation Sindoor, he said he got the vibe that things have changed in some Muslim nations. In the four nations to which he had led a delegation --- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Algeria -- it was clear that they have moved on from the days when they an "natural affinity" for Pakistan.

"They have completely changed," he said.

"These are nations that Prime Minister Modi has focused on building relations with. They have given him their highest honors. And all these four countries have faced terrorism and reacted similar to us -- very hard action against terrorists and against the kind of terrorists that Pakistan has given shelter to. For example, Al-Qaeda," he explained.

The other big reason why the world is ready to see India's view is that "We are the world's fastest growing economy".

"We have become the fourth largest. We are going to become the third largest.  Countries all over the world, including these Gulf, GCC and Middle Eastern countries that we visited, all want to be associated with India," he said. 

The Congress has insisted that India's diplomatic outreach has failed. 

Senior party leader Pooja Tripathi told NDTV, "When Pakistan and Russia are signing a big-ticket deal with Pakistan, you send diplomatic missions to every country possible... and then nobody, not even a single country came out making statement that Pakistan is the epicenter of terrorism and Pakistan was responsible.  They did criticise the terror attack, but nobody named Pakistan".

Pakistan, she said, was "not alone" in its efforts to target India after the terror camps were targeted. 

Pointing out that Lieutenant General Rahul Singh, the deputy military chief, "has gone on record and said that China was providing real-time updates to Pakistani drones and they were having our information," she said the government should think of that "rather than calling it anti-national and we are siding with Pakistan and China". 

"This is a strategic fallout.  This makes us vulnerable at two strategic borders.  This was not a one-on-one India-Pakistan war that was going on," she said. "We were exposed at multiple levels. And this government needs to, rather than shying away from having an all-party discussion, rather than shying away from having a joint session... These are the questions that they need to answer," she added.