Today in Politics: Why Opposition may find it hard to counter govt in aftermath of Operation Sindoor

Then there was senior Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Ram Gopal Yadav, seeking to target the BJP, who made equally obnoxious comments about the caste of other officers who held the daily media briefings on the military operation. Then there was Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saugata Roy who described the conflict as “insignificant” and questioned the government’s claims of hitting terrorist bases in Pakistan. Congress’s Barmer MP Ummeda Ram Beniwal sought proof from the government on whether the terrorists behind the Pahalgam killings had asked their victims about their religion, claiming there was no evidence of the same.

On Friday, it was the turn of another BJP leader, Madhya Pradesh Deputy CM Jagdish Devda, who landed his party in a spot of bother by claiming that soldiers were “bowing” at the PM’s feet for the retaliation against Pakistan.

While it must have been expected that politicians would play politics over even such a serious matter as a military conflict and none are expected to pay any serious price for their comments — the High Court called for an FIR against Shah, but Anand Mohan J explains why he is likely to escape the axe — the Opposition appears to have lost an opportunity to corner the BJP over its leaders’ comments.

On Friday, there was criticism of the BJP leaders’ comments from Congress leaders, including Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi. However, the slip-ups by people in the Opposition ranks only make it difficult for the Congress and the others to drive home their point.

The Opposition has also tried to raise questions and capitalise on the Prime Minister’s absence from two all-party meetings after the Pahalgam attack — once in its immediate aftermath and once after Operation Sindoor commenced — but that too has not gained that much traction, especially when the Congress’s Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has been one of the leading voices defending the government and the military. Tharoor and former Union Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid are expected to be part of all-party parliamentary delegations to other countries to take the government’s message to the world and explain its position.

In such a scenario, when the government is pushing for a united approach to countering the Pakistani narrative, the Opposition is bound to find it a difficult terrain to navigate. As Manoj CG wrote in his Capital Column this week, the Congress is caught in two minds on how to respond to the current political scenario. Its dilemma, in a way, encapsulates the quandary of the entire Opposition. Follow the BJP line too much and you end up fuelling its nationalist narrative that can only benefit it. Try and hold the government to account and you will be open to accusations of playing politics on national security issues.

How all this plays out and whether leaders across the political divide avoid putting their parties in embarrassing positions will be one to watch out for on Saturday.

Amit Shah in Gujarat

Union Home Minister Amit Shah begins a two-day visit to his home state Gujarat on Saturday. Shah is scheduled to inaugurate primary health centres and an underpass in his constituency Gandhinagar during the day. In the evening, he is expected to address the people of Kolavada village after inaugurating a newly developed lake and other projects of the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation and the Department of Posts.