THE UNVEILING

The important issues which were listed from the Opposition side were either not answered or rebuffed with whataboutery alluding to the earlier government’s weaknesses

- Malay Mishra

The three-day slugfest between the government and the Opposition during discussions on the Pahalgam killings and Operation Sindoor (28-30 July) drew blood from both sides alike. In the process the vital issues on failure of security, surveillance, foreign policy and leadership role, and enmeshing of politics in warfare, lay unanswered. Surely, it was an emotive issue but turned to be extremely divisive during the course of the discussions.

The Home Minister displaying the findings of Operation Mahadev right at the start of the Lok Sabha session that three terrorists alleged to have been linked to the Pahalgam massacre were hunted down by Indian forces on the outskirts of Srinagar could perhaps settle this key question although the unsettling part is the timing of the findings coinciding with the Parliament session.

The US government's decision to list the TRF, a front of the banned Le'T, which had initially claimed responsibility for the killings, as a terrorist organisation followed by the UN doing the same would have proved the point that India had been a victim of Pak-based terrorism. However, India's justification in using its Air Force to attack and decimate nine terrorist hideouts deep inside Pakistan and calling it a non-escalatory strike failed to get approbation in sensitizing global public opinion on Pakistan’s role as evidenced from the lacklustre success of the multiparty delegations which were sent out soon after Operation Sindoor to 30-odd destinations worldwide.