By Kavita Mistry 
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, Saturday attacked the Centre, citing External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s remarks about New Delhi’s “message” to Pakistan at the start of Operation Sindoor, and linked it to “losses” suffered by the Indian Air Force in combat.
“Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it. 1. Who authorised it? 2. How many aircraft did our airforce lose as a result?” Gandhi wrote on X, attaching a 17-second-long video clip of Jaishankar speaking to media persons.
Gandhi had remained silent thus far on Operation Sindoor and the subsequent military flare-up between India and Pakistan. He was scheduled to hold a press conference to share his thoughts on the issue Friday, but did not do so.
His only prior comment was a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, conveying the “unanimous request of the Opposition” to convene a special session of Parliament to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack, Operation Sindoor, and the ceasefire “first announced by US President Donald Trump”.
Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime.
EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it.
1. Who authorised it?
2. How many aircraft did our airforce lose as a result? pic.twitter.com/KmawLLf4yW— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 17, 2025
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh also targeted Jaishankar.
“The EAM — who will not reply to what his US counterpart has been claiming — has made an extraordinary revelation. How he can continue in his position defies understanding. The PM gave a clean chit to China publicly on June 19, 2020, and destroyed our negotiating position. The man who he appointed as EAM has now betrayed India with this statement,” he wrote on X.
Responding to a question on the losses suffered by the IAF amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan last week, Director General Air Operations Air Marshal A.K. Bharti had said at a press conference on 11 May, “We are in a combat scenario. Losses are a part of combat. The question to be asked is, have we achieved our objectives of decimating the terrorist camps? The answer is a thumping yes.”
The Press Information Bureau Friday dismissed the claim that Jaishankar had admitted that India gave advance information to Pakistan about Operation Sindoor. The PIB fact-check unit posted on X that Jaishankar was being misquoted.
Social media posts quoting EAM @DrSJaishankar are implying that India gave advance information to Pakistan about #OperationSindoor#PIBFactCheck
▶️ EAM is being misquoted, and he has not made this statement
🔗https://t.co/DQriAgE56e https://t.co/05OiwE3kdV
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 16, 2025
A look at Jaishankar’s full interaction with reporters Thursday—a short clip of which Gandhi has posted—shows that he made the remarks while defending the cessation of military action from India’s end.
“What you call ceasefire, we call cessation of firing and military action. We achieved the goals which we set out to do by destroying the terrorist infrastructure in Bahawalpur and Muridke, Muzaffarabad and other places. Since the key goals were achieved, I think we reasonably took the position, because even at the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan, saying we are striking at terrorist infrastructure, we are not striking at the military, so the military has an option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice,” Jaishankar had said.
The Kerala Congress, which had also shared the clip on X, rejected the PIB statement.
“Where did we misquote him? Did he say this or not? If he said, what did he mean by saying ‘at the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan’? Did he say ‘start’ or ‘end’? If it was start, then it simply means that he gave advance information. There is no denying that. And what do you mean by ‘he has not made this statement’, when you have this video as evidence?” a post on the X account of the party’s Kerala unit read.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)