Parliament Monsoon Session LIVE: Opposition Shouldn't Toe Pakistan's Line, Says Rijiju As Debate Gets Delayed

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju asked the Opposition not to toe Pakistan’s line on Operation Sindoor.

“Let the Opposition not speak the language of Pakistan and run down the morale of our army,” he said.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the Opposition was running away from a discussion on Operation Sindoor and was now introducing “conditions”.

“You are trying to run away from a discussion on Op Sindoor. Opposition is now bringing conditions after demanding a discussion on Op Sindoor for the last two months. We were ready to discuss Op Sindoor. The party was of the opinion that the discussion should start at around 12.15, but 10 minutes before the debate was about to start opposition had put a new demand that they wanted, after the Op Sindoor discussion, SIR should be discussed,” he said.

After Opposition ruckus forced repeated adjournments of Lok Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said that the Opposition was “running away from a debate on Operation Sindoor”.

He said that the Opposition wants a line of commitment that the Bihar SIR debate should be held after the Operation Sindoor debate. “Such decisions cannot be taken like that,” he said.

Sources in the INDIA Bloc said that this was the plan of the Opposition parties to disrupt the Lok Sabha till lunch over the Bihar SIR issue.

“We will allow the House to run, but we want the government to know SIR is important too,” sources said.

Lok Sabha will now resume at 1 pm. Before adjournment, Speaker Om Birla asked the Opposition MPs to return to their seats. They had stormed the well of the House, shouting slogans.

The Op Sindoor debate was likely to start at 12 noon with the address of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. However, the consecutive adjournments due to repeated disruptions by the Opposition has resulted in a delayed start to the discussion.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla told the Opposition MPs, who stormed the well of the House, to take their seats and begin the Op Sindoor debate.

“If you want to discuss Operation Sindoor, then return to your seats. You all had sought a discussion on it, now you come to the well of the House, is it good? Do you want the debate or not? If yes, then return to your seats,” he said.

There is a possibility that Speaker Om Birla may invite Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to speak during the debate on Operation Sindoor tomorrow, to give an account of his delegation experience, sources said.

Tharoor led an all-party delegation to various countries, including the US where he met Vice President JD Vance.

The debate on Operation Sindoor in Lok Sabha will go on till around 10 pm tonight. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will speak in the House tomorrow.

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will address the House at around 7.30 pm today.

PM Modi may intervene during the discussion. However, the government has not yet confirmed his participation in the debate.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was asked by the reporters as he arrived at the Parliament today if he would speak during the Operation Sindoor debate in Lok Sabha, to which he said, “Maunvrat, maunvrat…”

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla fumed at the Opposition for disrupting the House with sloganeering during the Question Hour and asked why the political parties did not want the Question Hour to run smoothly when their demand for a debate on Operation Sindoor was accepted and the debate was listed for later in the day.

“Don’t you want to discuss Operation Sindoor? You had demanded a discussion on Op Sindoor. Then why are you disrupting the House today? Question Hour is the most important period of an MP. The nation wants to know why you want to stall the Question Hour? Why do you disrupt Question Hour in a pre-planned way? LoP, please make the leaders of your party understand. Why are you sloganeering inside the House and not letting the MPs speak during Question Hour? The country will see that you disrupted the Question Hour deliberately,” he said.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday slammed the Opposition over the ruckus in the House during the Question Hour.

“The country will see that you stalled the Question Hour deliberately. The nation wants to know why don’t you want the Question Hour to run,” he said.

The Opposition is continuing its sloganeering in the Lok Sabha.

Debate on the Operation Sindoor will begin after the Question Hour, which is held between 11 am and 12 noon.

Rajnath Singh will begin the debate around 12 noon.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam said on Monday that Congress leader P Chidambaram has given a clean chit to Pakistan with his “no proof that Pahalgam terrorists came from Pakistan” remark.

“Chidambaram Sahib has given a clean chit to Pakistan. Is Congress going to debate Operation Sindoor in this tone today?” Nirupam tweeted.

The BJP has lashed out at Congress over P Chidambaram’s remark in an interview that “there is no proof that Pahalgam terrorists came from Pakistan”.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said that Congress has turned into a “traitor organisation”.

The INDIA bloc meeting ended. Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are likely to see ruckus over the Bihar SIR issue, sources said.

Lok Sabha will run in the afternoon during the Operation Sindoor debate, they added.

Kiren Rijiju said ahead of the debate on Operation Sindoor that Congress and Opposition should not speak anything in the Parliament that harms India’s national interest. He said that they should not speak anything that “favours Pakistan”.

“Everybody must ensure that Dignity and spirit of Indian Army must be respected – Also the enemies of the country should not take advatntage of fould language used by opposition leaders,” he said.

The meeting of the INDIA bloc parties began at 10 am today to strategise for the Operation Sindoor debate.

Congress, RJD, JMM, and TMC are among the parties taking part in the meeting.

Rahul Gandhi has also reached the meeting.

Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav questioned the government over the terrorists who carried out the Pahalgam terror attack and asked if they “vanished into thin air”.

He asked why the terror attacks are still taking place under the BJP government at the Centre.

“In the Pahalgam case, what happened to the terrorists involved? Did they vanish into thin air? Where exactly are those terrorists? The government must answer this,” he said.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju gave a Ramayana reference ahead of Operation Sindoor debate in the Parliament and said that when Ravan crosse the Laxman Rekha, Lanka was burned, and when Pakistan crossed the red line drawn by India, terrorist camps faced the fire.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi has said that the Operation Sindoor debate in the Parliament will focus on several developments that took place after the Pahalgam terror attack.

She said that the way people were killed in Pahalgam, terrorists wanted polarisation in India, however, people of the country stayed united.

She said that India took a number of steps to punish Pakistan, including putting the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, launching Operation Sindoor and banning Pakistani channels and influencer accounts.

“We sent multiparty delegations out in the world, but those four terrorists are still at large. We haven’t found them yet. Most importantly, they are trying to normalise the relationship. If India and Pakistan play a cricket match against each other anywhere in the world, it will be against the interests of the country,” she told news agency ANI.

Top Congress sources said that the party has asked Shashi Tharoor to participate in the Operation Sindoor debate, but he has refused.

Congress has been allotted approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes during the debate in Lok Sabha. Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi will open the debate.

Most of the countries had backed India and its right to self-defence after the Pahalgam terror attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally dialled Prime Minister Narendra Modi to offer condolences and express solidarity after the attack. The UK, along with the G7, declared it “an attack on peace and humanity”.

China had also expressed “shock” and “strong condemnation” of the attack.

The government is likely to stress during the debate that after the Pahalgam terror attack, almost the entire world stood with India and condemned the act of terrorism.

Various countries backed India’s right to act against terror, the government may highlight.

The US also condemned the Pahalgam attack as “heinous” and went on to designate The Resistance Front — a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy — as a terrorist organisation, in what is a major diplomatic victory for India.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has not been asked by the party to speak during the Operation Sindoor debate yet. This comes as speculations of disagreement between him and the party remain over his stance during Operation Sindoor.

He had openly backed the government during Operation Sindoor against Pakistan and was chosen by the Centre to lead a delegation of MPs to various countries, including the US, as part of the diplomatic outreach to expose Pakistan on terror.