Rahul, MEA spar over S Jaishankar's remarks about strikes on Pakistan

A war of words erupted between Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) over the remarks by S Jaishankar about the Indian strikes in Pakistan

New Delhi: A war of words erupted between Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) over the remarks by S Jaishankar about the Indian strikes in Pakistan.

India targeted as many as 9 targets in Pakistan early in the morning on May 7, 2025 to avenge the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

The Indian airstrikes, named “Operation Sindoor” in Pakistan escalated the tension with Pakistan launching its own retaliatory military operation named “Operation Bunyan um Marsoos”. A war-like situation prevailed for the next four days before the two countries agreed for the U.S. brokered ceasefire on May 10, 2025.

Despite the ceasefire deal, claims and counter claims are being made from the two countries, making the agreement, if there is any, volatile.

Amidst this volatile situation, a video of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar surfaced on social media wherein he purportedly said Pakistan was informed beforehand about the Indian military operation.

“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 (Pakistan) 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 told reporters.

“It’s a Crime”

Responding to Jaishnakar’s comments, LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said sharing such information was a crime.

“Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime”, Rahul Gandhi wrote on social media platform X while tagging the video.

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

Stating that the External Affairs Minister (EAM) has publicly admitted that the Government of India (GOI) did it, Rahul asked, “Who authorised it? ⁠How many aircraft did our airforce lose as a result?”

“Misrepresentation”

The Ministry of External Affairs hit back describing as “utter misrepresentation” the claims that Jaishankar admitted that India alerted Pakistan before the launch of Operation Sindoor.

“The External Affairs Minister had stated that we had warned Pakistan at the start, which is clearly the early phase after Operation Sindoor’s commencement,” the External Publicity (XP) Division of the Ministry said.

“This is being falsely represented as being before the commencement. This utter misrepresentation of facts is being called out,” it said in a brief statement.

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