Parliament debate on Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor ends with Opposition staging walkout

New Delhi: The debate on Pahalgam terror strike and Operation Sindoor concluded in Parliament on an acrimonious note with Opposition walking out from Rajya Sabha protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of “insulting” the House by not replying to the discussion despite being present in the complex.

Addressing the House where Opposition MPs were not present, Shah said “Modi era will be written in golden letters” in history as he listed out the achievements of the BJP-led government, including abrogation of Article 370, Ram Temple and UCC (Uniform Civil Code), "which has started" among others.

With the Congress leaders questioning why there was a ceasefire when Pakistan was on backfoot, Shah alleged, "You gave away Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir. It will be the BJP which will do the work of regaining PoK". He said terrorism will be finished in Jammu and Kashmir soon.

On 'Operation Mahadev' launched to target terrorists involved in Pahalgam attack, he said people wanted terrorists behind Pahalgam to be shot in the head and "incidentally, all three terrorists were hit in the head by our forces".

As soon as Home Minister Amit Shah stood up to respond to the debate, Opposition MPs were on their feet demanding Modi's presence and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said they expected Modi to respond to several questions, including many directed to him in person, but "it was unfortunate" that he was not present.

Shah shot back saying Modi is in Parliament House at the moment and he (Shah) has been tasked to speak on the issue as the Prime Minister "felt that he was enough to deal with the Opposition in the Upper House".

“There was a demand from the Opposition that the PM should come to the House and give a reply. If the PM doesn't come to the House despite being present in Parliament premises, then it is an insult to the House and this is not right,” Kharge said while emphasising he was not implying that Shah was not capable of responding to the debate.

As Deputy Chairman Harivansh did not accede to the demand, Kharge announced a walkout from the House.

As MPs were walking out, Shah hit back at the Opposition saying they were doing so for vote bank and claimed that Congress never field Kharge for important debates. Modi had responded to the debate in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Admitting that Pakistan is able to launch terrorist attacks even today, Shah said the number of such incidents is reducing and the Modi government is committed to ending terrorism and infiltration.

Referring to Digvijaya Singh's earlier comments that RSS carried out Mumbai attacks, he asked by such statements, who were they trying to save. The home minister said they spoke about "Hindu terrorism" but "Hindus cannot be terrorists". "They filed several fake cases against patriotic organisations. But nothing stuck in court," he said.

"The priority of Congress is not national security, but politics. Its priority is not to end terrorism but vote bank. Its priority is not border security but secular appeasement politics," Shah said adding, had there been Cong government, they would have sent dossiers instead of acting against terrorists.