Congress' Surjewala questions Modi govt on 'sudden halt' of Operation Sindoor, Trump's role in ceasefire

New Delhi: Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala on Monday asked the Modi government to lay down a National Military Doctrine combining the two-front Pakistan-China challenge besides reviving the UPA idea of raising a 'Mountain Strike Corps' and setting up a separate 'Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Drone Corps'.

Raising questions over "sudden halt" of Operation Sindoor just when the armed forces "had gained a clear upper hand over Pakistan", Surjewala said the government should spell out the "strategic, military and political goals achieved" by the move.

In a series of posts on 'X', he asked what was the framework and terms of the ceasefire agreement entered into with Pakistan and why was Foreign Vikram Misri saying that the ceasefire agreement was entered into by the Directors General of Military Operations of the two countries when the US is claiming that it has mediated it.

Surjewala, a senior Rajya Sabha MP and Congress in-charge of Karnataka, also asked why was the Modi Government permitting the US to equate India with Pakistan, despite the "fully established fact" that Pakistan is a "Terror State".

He also queried about the US talking about India-Pak talks at a "neutral site" and said this "unilateral step" is a clear-cut negation of India’s time-tested policy of no third-party mediation and no mediation in a third country.

"We should lay down a National Military Doctrine, which should combine the two-front Pakistan-China challenge, a glimpse of which we saw during Operation Sindoor. The 'multi domain conflict' scenario is a real possibility and all preparedness must be made for the same," he said.

With Pakistan using drones to attack India, he said the Government should "seriously moot" raising a separate 'Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Drone Corps' and expand the military drone and unmanned aerial systems manufacturing capabilities.

"We must strengthen our communication and narrative building at a global level. The government must identify experts and commentators, including amongst the Opposition so that these strategic domain experts can become our spokespersons during such national campaigns," he said.

Demanding that the defence budget should be doubled, he said India should spend up to 4% of the GDP in the next five years to further enhance our military capacities, strategic weapon manufacturing and procurements, adopt and introduce new technologies including artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, machine learning, hyper-sonics and robotics.

He also said the Indian Air Force (IAF) has a sanctioned strength of 42 fighter squadrons but its effective strength is 29, with two MiG-21 squadrons retiring. "Therefore, we need more fighter jets, including transfer of technology to promote ‘Make in India’ in order to augment our deterrence," he said.