NEW DELHI, May 19: – Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday intensified his criticism of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, questioning his silence over the alleged loss of Indian aircraft after what Gandhi claimed was prior intimation to Pakistan before military strikes under Operation Sindoor.
“EAM Jaishankar’s silence isn’t just telling, it’s damning. So I’ll ask again: How many Indian aircraft did we lose because Pakistan knew?” Gandhi wrote in a post on X, reviving his earlier allegations.
“This wasn’t a lapse. It was a crime. And the nation deserves the truth,” he added, referring to what he described as a deliberate act of informing Pakistan ahead of India’s military operations targeting terror infrastructure across the border, including in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha had previously shared a video clip of Jaishankar, accusing the external affairs minister of publicly admitting that the Indian government had informed Pakistan at the onset of the strikes.
“Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our Air Force lose as a result?” Gandhi asked in an earlier post, demanding accountability.
In response, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) rejected Gandhi’s assertions, calling them an “utter misrepresentation” of Jaishankar’s remarks.
“The external affairs minister had stated that we had warned Pakistan at the start — which clearly referred to the early phase after the commencement of Operation Sindoor,” the ministry’s External Publicity (XP) Division clarified. “This is being falsely represented as being before the commencement. This utter misrepresentation of facts is being called out.”
The controversy comes amid heightened political tensions following India’s retaliatory strikes under Operation Sindoor, launched after the Pahalgam terror attack. Gandhi’s persistent questioning has kept the issue in the spotlight, even as the MEA maintains that the interpretation of Jaishankar’s comments is being distorted for political mileage.
