India showed how to wage 'non-violent war' during Operation Sindoor: BJP gen secy Agrawal

Bengaluru: BJP national general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agrawal on Thursday said India demonstrated Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence during Operation Sindoor.

He said the world saw that other than the target, no innocent lives inside Pakistan were lost during Operation Sindoor to avenge the killing of tourists in Pahalgam on April 22.

"We demonstrated to the world how to implement Mahatma Gandhi's Ahimsa philosophy during the war. This was the most non-violent war because we targeted only those whom we wanted to destroy," Agrawal told reporters here.

He claimed no innocent person lost his life.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taught the world new war dynamics, the BJP MP claimed.

When asked about US President Donald Trump's statement that he brokered peace, Agrawal said only Trump knows what he has done.

"When a train halts at a railway station, some children get down and push it. When the train starts again, children shout that they pushed the train to start. Trump's behaviour is as childish as those children on the platform. BJP rejects Trump's intervention," the BJP general secretary said.

Agrawal said Trump is not a problem for India, but the USA. It's left to Trump and the people of the USA.

Agrawal reminded that Modi, in his address to the nation, said the Director General of Military Operations of Pakistan had called on his Indian counterpart.

When the Indian DGMO did not respond, the Pakistani DGMO rang him again and "begged him" to stop the war, saying "enough is enough now", he claimed.

"Our strategy was not to kill the people of Pakistan. We don't believe in maddening violence. Our target was to send across a message and punish the terrorists, their offices, their terror camps and those sheltering them. We achieved our objectives," Agrawal noted.

According to him, the war would have ended on May 9 itself if Pakistan had requested India to stop the war.

About Operation Sindoor, he said the PM said that this is just a ceasefire. The war has been halted and not stopped. It will continue.

Whenever and wherever there is any terror attack in the country, India will consider it as a war against it and counter it. Operation Sindoor is just a phase, the war will continue, Agrawal said.

Speaking about the fate of the Sindhu River Treaty, he said the pact was entirely anti-India treaty.

"You will be shocked to know that in 1960, 90 per cent of water was given to Pakistan. Let the Indian agriculture fields be barren, but Pakistani soil should flourish. Not just that, the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave away Rs 83 crore to Pakistan so that it can build canals. This Rs 83 crore is different from Rs 55 crore given to Pakistan at Mahatma Gandhi's insistence," Agrawal claimed.

Regarding the Congress' trivialising Operation Sindoor by comparing it with the Indo-Pak war in 1971 which saw the liberation of Bangladesh, Agrawal said India would have lost the war of 1971 if Sam Manekshaw was not the Army chief.

"Whatever the Indian Army had achieved in 1971 was lost on July 2, 1972 through the Shimla pact. Army won and Indira lost," the BJP MP said.

On Congress' demand to sack Madhya Pradesh Minister Vijay Shah's controversial statement on Col Sofia Qureshi, Agarwal said the BJP does not need to pay heed to any anti-national party's demand.

If people start giving resignation for statements, then no one would be left in the Congress except for P Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor. We should first demand Rahul Gandhi's resignation, the BJP general secretary said.

"So far as Vijay Shah's statement is concerned, he has twice apologised. The BJP has not pardoned him yet. Wait for some more time," he said.

Regarding Karnataka, he said he is appalled that CM Siddaramaiah gives anti-India and anti-Hindu statements and makes such policies.

"But I am happy that the Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar does not concur with the chief minister's anti-national views and he stands with the Indian Army," said Agarwal, who is also in-charge of Karnataka.