New Delhi, Jul 30: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday categorically said there was no third-party intervention in bringing about a ceasefire with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, asserting that the halting of the military action was also not linked to trade as claimed by US President Donald Trump.
Intervening in the special discussion on Operation Sindoor in the Rajya Sabha, Jaishankar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US President did not have any phone calls between April 22, when the Pahalgam terror attack took place, and June 16.
Jaishankar attacked the Congress for not responding to terror attacks perpetrated by Pakistan in the past and accused it of “self-hyphenating” India with Pakistan on the issue of terror.
However, he said the Modi government was now setting things right and would give Pakistan a befitting and appropriate response to every attack done by it, citing the surgical and Balakot strikes and now ‘Operation Sindoor’.
The minister said under the new normal, India would hit back whenever Pakistan attacks it and would not buckle under any nuclear threat.
He also blamed the previous Congress governments for China coming closer to Pakistan since the 1960s, when Islamabad handed over parts of PoK to Beijing.
He also dubbed Rahul Gandhi as “China Guru” in a veiled attack on him for giving his expertise on China.
Responding to various charges by the Opposition, Jaishankar, during his hour-long speech, said that in the last decade, there had been a huge change in India’s response to terrorism, which was demonstrated through ‘Operation Sindoor’.
He said when ‘Operation Sindoor’ commenced, several countries were in contact with India, but India gave the message that targets selected and hit on May 7 were known terrorist headquarters and infrastructure in Pakistan.
Jaishankar said the operation also did a global service as India reduced to dust terror infrastructure in Pakistan, including in Bahawalpur and Muridke.
He also chided certain opposition party leaders for mocking India’s military action against Pakistan, saying if they had any doubts, they should watch videos of funerals of terrorists in Pakistan and the destruction of airfields there.
The minister said ‘Operation Sindoor’ was a well-considered and thoughtful response to the Pahalgam attack, and it had now become the basis of a new policy.
He said India would keep responding to each terror attack in the same way.
“We gave a message that we are not open to any mediation, that anything between us and Pakistan will only be bilateral. We gave a message that we will not accept nuclear blackmail, and whatever talk of nuclear danger will not deter us from going ahead with ‘Operation Sindoor’. We gave a message that we are now responding to the Pakistani attack, and we will keep responding. If that fighting has to stop, Pakistan must make a request, and that request must come from the channel of Pakistan’s DGMO,” he said.
On May 9, Jaishankar said US Vice President J D Vance called up the Prime Minister to warn him that, in American assessment, a massive Pakistani attack would come in the next few hours.
“Prime Minister listened and made it very clear that if anything of that happens, it (Pakistan) would get a fitting and appropriate response from our side. A few hours later, that happened, and a fitting and appropriate response also happened, which disabled the entire Pakistani air defence system and rendered all their airfields inoperative,” he said.
At this stage, he claimed India started getting calls that Pakistan was ready to stop fighting, but insisted that the Pakistani side had to make a request through the DGMO.
“I want to make three things clear – there was no leader, nobody in the world who asked India to stop its operations. This is something the prime minister also said. There was no linkage of trade in any of these conversations, and there was no talk between the Prime Minister and President Trump,” he said.
Jaishankar said during this period, several countries, including the US, EU, and Saudi Arabia, had conversations with India, and all were told that if Pakistanis want to stop fighting, they have to request through the DGMO.
“I want to make it clear that between April 22 and June 16, there was no phone call between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi,” he said.
The Opposition has been attacking the government on claims made by Trump on mediation in halting hostilities between India and Pakistan by using the threat of trade.
Noting that the Pahalgam terror attack was absolutely unacceptable, he said a red line was crossed by Pakistan, and there had to be accountability and justice.
“Blood and water will not flow together,” he said, providing reasons for India’s decision to suspend the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan.
Jaishankar said the Modi government has corrected the wrongs of Nehru’s policies by suspending the treaty.
The treaty signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was not to buy peace, but for appeasement, he said.
He said terrorism was now on the global agenda only because of the efforts of the Modi government.
Jaishankar said there was grief and shock across the world after the Pahalgam attack.
“But the question was, what after that? And the answers were two. One such attack was unacceptable. It crossed our red line. There had to be severe consequences. And two, there had to be accountability of the perpetrators, and they and their supporters had to be brought to justice. Now, the first clear message of India’s anger was the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security immediately the day after, on April 23,” he said.
