Political consensus on Operation Sindoor: Rijiju after all-party meet

New Delhi: Leaders across the political spectrum attending an all-party meeting convened by the government on Thursday were united in support of Operation Sindoor, targeted at terrorist sites inside Pakistan, and congratulated the armed forces for the decisive action.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh briefed the leaders about the action taken by the armed forces, but refused to share details about Operation Sindoor saying the action was still "ongoing".

"There were some queries from the opposition, but the Raksha Mantri said since this was an ongoing operation there cannot be a separate briefing on every incident," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters after the 90-minute meeting.

"This meeting was to evolve a broad political consensus. All the leaders have shown maturity at a time when the nation was faced with big challenges," he said.

Besides Defence Minister Singh, the meeting was attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Leaders of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, BJP president and Health Minister J P Nadda.

DMK leader T R Baalu, Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC), Supriya Sule (NCP-SP), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena-UBT), Ramgopal Yadav (SP), John Brittas (CPI-M), Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), Praful Patel (NCP), Chirag Paswan (LJP-RV) and Sasmit Patra (BJD) were among those present at the meeting.

"All the leaders have shown maturity at a time when we are all working together. Everyone has hailed and congratulated the armed forces for Operation Sindoor, and said that we will support the government and armed forces," Rijiju said.

He said some leaders also made certain suggestions and voiced concern over the prevalence of fake news on social media.

"I believe all political leaders showed maturity. There is no room for politics at a time when the nation is faced with big challenges," Rijiju said.

He said the political parties expressed pride in the action taken by the armed forces.

"Today's meeting demonstrated that political parties do not indulge in politics just to form the government , but also to build the nation. This reflects that India is a mature democracy," Rijiju said quoting the defence minister at the meeting.