New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called for a special session of Parliament, alleging that recent remarks made by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) during an interview in Singapore, raise several important questions.
Kharge said the "fog of war is clearing," and it's now evident that the Modi government has "misled the nation."
On his social media handle X, Kharge said, "Our IAF pilots were risking their lives fighting the enemy. We have suffered some losses, but our pilots were safe. As per CDS's interview, "we made, remedy it, rectify it, and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets again, targeting at long range".
"We salute their resolute courage and bravery. However, a comprehensive strategic review is the need of the hour," Kharge said.
He further demanded the constitution of an independent expert committee to conduct a comprehensive review of India’s defence preparedness, similar to the Kargil Review Committee established after the 1999 Kargil conflict.
Raising concerns over Trump’s repeated assertions about brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, Kharge said, "US President Donald Trump has again repeated his claim about BROKERING a CEASEFIRE. This is a direct affront to the Shimla Agreement".
Kharge said, "Instead of clarifying Mr Trump's repeated assertions, and the affidavit filed by US Secretary of Commerce in the United States Court of International Trade, PM Modi is on an election blitz, taking PERSONAL CREDIT for the valour of our Armed Forces, hiding behind their bravery and dodging the contours of the agreed CEASEFIRE, which the Foreign Secretary announced on 10th, after Mr Trump's tweet".
In the wake of the remarks made by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in Singapore in an interview, there are some very important questions which need to be asked.
These can only be asked if a Special Session of the Parliament is immediately convened.
While stating that 140 cr patriotic Indians deserve to know this, the Congress president again asked, "Is India and Pakistan now again hyphenated? What are the conditions of the CEASEFIRE agreement?
What did CDS say?
During an interview to the Bloomberg TV, when Gen Chauhan was asked “whether or not Pakistan downed an Indian jet or in fact more than that”, he said “I think what is important is not jet being down but why..”
To which Gen Chauhan was asked again if he meant IAF jets were indeed downed to which he responded saying he was talking about why “they” were downed.
“The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it, and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets, again targeting at long range,” the CDS said.
When asked about Pakistan’s claims that it downed six IAF jets, he said, “Absolutely incorrect. That is not the information which I said is important. What is important is why they were down. That is more important for us. And what did we do after that. That is more important.”
There was no immediate response on the total number or types of aircraft India lost during Operation Sindoor, besides the “tactical mistake” the CDS referred to in his response.
In a separate interview to Reuters, the CDS said, “What I can say is that on the 7th [May], in the initial stages, there were losses but numbers, that is not important. What was important is why these losses occur and what we will do after that.
“We rectified tactics and then went back on 7th, 8th and 10th, and on 10th in large numbers to hit airbases deep inside Pakistan. Penetrated all their air defence with impunity and carried out precision strikes.”
He added that the IAF “flew all types of aircraft with all types of ordinances on the 10th”.
