Terrorists are roaming, so are our MPs: Jairam Ramesh stirs up controversy

Jairam Ramesh reignited row over Operation Sindoor, saying govt was silent on Pahalgam attackers while MPs 'roam' abroad

Congress leader and communications head Jairam Ramesh stirred a fresh political row on Thursday by renewing his attack on the Centre’s Operation Sindoor and the overseas visits by all-party delegations. Drawing a sharp parallel, he remarked that just as the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack remain at large, so too are MPs “roaming” abroad on government missions.

 

These seven delegations include several Congress figures — with Shashi Tharoor leading one of the teams.

 

Speaking to ANI, Ramesh, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, said, “It has been one month since the attack in Pahalgam in April. They (the terrorists) are still roaming here and there… Our MPs are roaming and terrorists are also roaming. We are asking these questions seriously. They (the government) do not answer these questions. The BJP only targets the Congress party. Their attack… should be on the terrorists… on Pakistan. The terrorists should be arrested.”

 

 

Ramesh further criticised the government for not convening a special session of Parliament to debate the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor — a demand raised by several Opposition leaders.

 

“It is being heard that a special session can be called on June 25 and 26 because it is the 50th anniversary of the Emergency. An undeclared Emergency has been in force in our country since 2014. He (PM Modi) wants to call a special session for what happened 50 years ago? To divert attention from today’s questions, they are talking about it… You are quiet on what President Donald Trump is saying. You have given a clean chit to China and you are quiet. Why are you politicising Operation Sindoor when the Opposition is talking of unity?” Ramesh asked.

 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back strongly, accusing Ramesh of “comparing MPs to terrorists” — a claim it called outrageous. Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “This is how Congress undermines not just our military strike (Op Sindoor) by calling it chut put (referring to a comment by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge) but also our diplomatic efforts.” He added that Parliament should take action against Ramesh.

 

Echoing that sentiment, BJP’s Pradeep Bhandari posted online: “Rahul Gandhi’s right hand Jairam Ramesh compares Members Of Parliament with Terrorists!”

 

Senior BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia also weighed in, saying, “The remark is highly condemnable and worrying. It is shameful for the entire nation that an Indian leader would draw a comparison between our MPs and terrorists. Since the success of ‘Operation Sindoor’, it seems that Congress and Rahul Gandhi have been trying to weaken the strong measures taken by PM Modi. This statement is yet another attempt in that direction.”

 

Earlier on Wednesday, Congress publicly reprimanded Shashi Tharoor for implying during an address in Panama that the Modi government had conducted the first surgical strikes. Congress spokesperson Udit Raj countered that the United Progressive Alliance had also carried out such missions — but without turning them into political showpieces. He added sarcastically, “I could prevail upon PM Modi to declare you (Tharoor) as super spokesperson of BJP, even foreign minister before (you land) in India.”

 

On Thursday, Congress publicity chief Pawan Khera joined in, reposting Udit Raj’s comment and sharing an excerpt from Tharoor’s own book The Paradoxical Prime Minister, which had criticised “the shameless exploitation of the 2016 surgical strikes”. “I agree with what Dr Shashi Tharoor wrote about surgical strikes in his book in 2018,” Khera added.

 

Tharoor, responding firmly the same day, said, “… For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC in the past — I was clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars… My remarks were preceded by a reference to the several attacks that have taken place in recent years alone, during which previous Indian responses were both restrained and constrained by our responsible respect for the LoC and the IB.”

 

“But as usual, critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views and words as they see fit. I genuinely have better things to do,” he added.