NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a veiled dig at the opposition, saying that the armed forces recorded Operation Sindoor on camera so that “no one at home asks for proof.”While addressing a rally in Gujarat, PM Modi, taking a swipe at the Congress, said India is a “land of the brave” and emphasised that terror attacks on the country can no longer be termed as “proxy wars.““This is a land of the brave. Until now, what we used to call a proxy war, after the scenes witnessed post-May 6, we can no longer make the mistake of calling it a proxy war. The reason is that when nine terrorist hideouts were identified and destroyed within just 22 minutes, it was a decisive action. And this time, everything was done in front of the cameras, so that no one back home would ask for proof,” the Prime Minister said.“I say this can no longer be called a proxy war because the terrorists whose funerals were held after May 6 were given state honours in Pakistan. Pakistan’s flags were placed on their coffins, and their army saluted them. It proves that terrorist activities are not a proxy war but a well-planned war strategy. You are already at war, and you will receive the response accordingly. We do not seek enmity with anyone. We want to live peacefully. We also want to progress so that we can contribute to the welfare of the world,” he added.PM Modi’s remarks alluded to previous instances, such as the surgical strikes in 2016 and the Balakot airstrikes in 2019, where the opposition questioned the efficacy of those military operations.Meanwhile, Congress attacked the Prime Minister and asked why terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar managed to escape armed forces’ precision strikes.During a press conference, Congress leader Pawan Khera said, “To date, we have not received an answer to that – What happened to the terrorists of Poonch, Ganderbal, Gulmarg and Pahalgam? On what terms did the ceasefire take place? How did Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar escape? Do the terms of ceasefire include bringing back these terrorists or not?”“If these questions are asked of the Modi government, its leaders deliver filmy dialogues. This government has outsourced the entire politics, political discourse, foreign policy to trolls,” he added.This comes after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Centre of forewarning Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor.“EAM Jaishankar’s silence isn’t just telling — it’s damning. So I’ll ask again: How many Indian aircraft did we lose because Pakistan knew?” Gandhi posted on X.“This wasn’t a lapse. It was a crime. And the nation deserves the truth,” he added.On May 17, Rahul shared an undated video of external affairs minister S Jaishankar, in which the minister is heard saying that India had warned Pakistan before launching strikes on terror infrastructure.“Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it.” He also questioned, “Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result?” Gandhi wrote.The ministry of external affairs (MEA) refuted Rahul’s claim, calling it a “misrepresentation of facts.”The MEA clarified that the government had warned Pakistan during the “early phase after Operation Sindoor’s commencement”, not before the operation began. It quoted Jaishankar as saying,“We had warned Pakistan at the start,” explaining that this clearly meant the early phase after the commencement of the operation.“This is being falsely represented as being before the commencement. This utter misrepresentation of facts is being called out,” the ministry added.Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7, targeting terror bases in Pakistan in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
