Peace at the time of conflict

Guns might be blazing on India's western border. But it is all quiet on the Parliament front.

- ADITI PHADNIS

Guns might be blazing on India's western border. But it is all quiet on the Parliament front. The Opposition demand for a joint session of Parliament to hold the government accountable for intelligence and security failures that led to the Pahalgam killings appears to be on the back burner. Lal Bihari Yadav, leader of the Opposition from the Samajwadi Party in the UP Legislative Council, is no longer saying the Pahalgam terrorist attack may have been "carried out politically".

Instead, the Opposition is rallying behind the government to a man and pledging full support to Operation Sindoor. The Congress is planning to take out "Jai Hind yatras" from all state party headquarters to back the operation—whether or not the government wants such a move. "You push on ahead and we are with you in the decisions you take and are standing with the army," said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge after the all-party meeting, which was briefed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The bitterness over the suspension of parliamentarians and the low-level exchange of rhetoric between the government and Opposition on a variety of issues ranging from nepotism to corruption to patriotism are in the past. Peace, however tenuous, has broken out between the government and the Opposition.