India News | Operation Sindoor to Garner Votes in Elections: Praniti Shinde

New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI) Congress member Praniti Shinde on Monday drew parallels between Operation Sindoor and the Colosseum in Rome, which was famous for hosting gladiatorial contests.

Participating in the debate on Operation Sindoor in the Lok Sabha, Shinde accused the government of turning national security into a spectacle to distract the public before elections.

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"Operation Sindoor sounds quite patriotic, but it appears to have been created for the media by the government. No one can tell what was achieved by Operation Sindoor. How many terrorists were caught? How many of our fighter jets were drowned? Whose fault it was," the first-term member from Solapur in Maharashtra asked.

She said it was for the government to be accountable, but there are curbs on asking questions.

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"This government doesn't want to listen to any questions, it runs away from being held accountable," Shinde said.

She said the present-day situation reminded her of the Colosseum in Rome, which was a unique example of architecture but an equally bad and disgusting example of the politics of the day.

"It is said that the structure was built to keep the people busy in games and entertainment and distract them from the problems of the day," Shinde said.

She said the government was also indulging in something similar, but just games and entertainment are not enough in the present times.

"Just before a major election, a terror attack takes place and the government gets busy with retaliatory action. The government does not know where the terrorists came from and where they went, but gets to launch an attack on a neighbouring country and win votes on that account," Shinde said.

She said she stands in the House with "anger, grief and a deep sense of insult" on behalf of the soldiers who got to know about the "ceasefire" with Pakistan not from their prime minister but from a foreign leader.

"The terrorists from Pahalgam have not been traced. The prime minister was busy addressing an election rally in Bihar while the victims' funeral pyres were still burning," she said.

Shinde also criticised a reported statement of the external affairs minister that appeared to warn the enemy ahead of an attack, asking whether that led to Indian jets being shot down.

"Under pressure from the United States, this government agreed to a shameful ceasefire. Foreign policy has become photo ops with the Indian diaspora," the Congress leader said, claiming that India's standing among its neighbours, once strong due to its "neighbourhood first" policy, has significantly declined.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)