Operation Sindoor Debate: Claims, Counterclaims, and Unanswered Questions

Several claims made by the Modi government regarding Op Sindoor contradict those made by US President Donald Trump.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi during a debate on Operation Sindoor in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, 29 July. 

(Photo: PTI/Altered by The Quint) 

The debate on Operation Sindoor in Parliament has yet to clarify what occurred behind the scenes between 7 and 10 May during the India-Pakistan standoff.

As proceedings continue, the sessions held on 28 and 29 July revealed a key takeaway: each stakeholder has a different version of the events. Statements from the Treasury Benches and the Opposition's attacks have added to the uncertainty rather than resolve it. The Quint analyses the claims, counterclaims, and unanswered questions.

Modi Government's Claim No. 1

The first and most stark claim made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was that "no leader in the world asked us to stop Operation Sindoor".

Contradiction to Trump's statements: This contradicts statements made by US President Donald Trump over the last few months that the conflict between India and Pakistan came to a halt only after he threatened to upend trade ties with both the countries.

The latest among over 25 statements he has issued on this topic was in Netherlands on 25 June.

"I ended it (the war) with a series of phone calls on trade," Trump had said at the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) summit held in The Hague.

"If you’re going to go fighting each other, we’re not doing any trade deal," he claimed to have told the governments of both India and Pakistan, to which, Trump claims, they purportedly responded by saying, "No, no, you have to do a trade deal."

What the Opposition said: A number of Opposition leaders, from Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, slammed the government over the repeated claims made by Trump.

"We can’t afford a PM who doesn’t have the guts to say from here that Donald Trump is a liar," Gandhi said while challenging PM Modi in Parliament. “If he (Trump) is lying, the PM should say here that he is lying. If he has the courage of Indira Gandhi, let him say here, ‘Trump, you are a liar, you did not make a ceasefire and we did not lose any planes'," he added.

Similarly, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav asked the government, "Under whose pressure was the ceasefire agreed to?"

Modi Government's Claim No. 2

Another disputed claim made by the Prime Minister was that the Pakistani DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) "pleaded" with India to accept a ceasefire and end the conflict.

"Pakistan could not imagine that India would respond like this," Modi said during his speech in Parliament on Tuesday, 29 July. "Pakistan called the Indian DGMO and said, 'Bas karo, bohot maara, ab zyaada maar jhelne ki taakat nahi hai (Stop now, you beat us badly, we cannot take any more)'," he added amid cheers from BJP MPs.

Contradiction to Trump's statements: Once again, this claim flies in the face of Trump's oft-repeated stance that the conflict ended after he "mediated a ceasefire" between New Delhi and Islamabad – rather than an end to the hostilities being achieved by DGMO-level talks.

On 10 May, Trump had stated that India and Pakistan agreed to a "full and immediate ceasefire" only after a "long night of talks mediated by the US". He then went on to repeat this claim a number of times on different occasions, including very recently.

This despite the fact that Foreign Secretary Vikrim Misri said during a press conference that PM Modi had conveyed to President Trump during a phone call that he had no role to play in ending the conflict.

"PM Modi told President Trump clearly that during this period, there was no talk at any stage on subjects like the India-US trade deal or US mediation between India and Pakistan,” Misri had said during a press briefing on 18 June.

However, even two days ago, on Monday, 28 July, Trump claimed that he was behind the India-Pakistan ceasefire. "If I weren’t around, you’d have, right now, six major wars going on. India would be fighting with Pakistan,” Trump said, flanked by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland's Turnberry.

Modi Government's Claim No. 3

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, while addressing the Lok Sabha on Monday, 28 July, said that the Indian DGMO had called his Pakistani counterpart at around 1:35 am on 7 May – 30 minutes after Operation Sindoor was launched – to inform him about the rationale and methodology of the military strikes.

"He (Indian DGMO) told him that these attacks were not escalatory in nature, and that we did not intend to take these forward," Singh said.

The defence minister further added that Pakistan "refused to understand the rationale" and "violated the ceasefire" by attacking India's civilian and military areas.

Since the Indian DGMO called his Pakistani counterpart 30 minutes following the launch of Operation Sindoor to put an end to hostilities then and there, could Singh's statement be seen as a contradiction to that issued by PM Modi, who stated that it was Pakistan, rather than India, who first broached the topic of a ceasefire?

The Opposition certainly thinks so.

What the Opposition said: Leading the attack against the defence minister, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said that the Indian DGMO was told by the government to "ask for a ceasefire" at 1:35 am on 7 May, calling it a "surrender". He also alleged that by doing so, India had conveyed that it did not have the "political will" to continue fighting.

"Operation Sindoor lasted 22 minutes and then he (Rajnath Singh) said the most shocking thing. 'At 1.35 am we called Pakistan and told them that we have non-military targets and we do not want escalation'. These are the words of the defence minister. The DGMO of India was told by the government to ask for a ceasefire at 1.35 am," the Congress leader said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, 29 July.

He also claimed that the goal of the entire exercise was to "protect the prime minister's image".

Hitting out against Gandhi over his statements, PM Modi accused the Congress of "importing issues from Pakistan", adding that there was no need for further military operations against Pakistan since "in 22 minutes, we avenged the 22 April attack... and Pakistan couldn't do anything".

Modi Government's Claim No. 4

Addressing the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, 29 July, PM Modi said that India got support from all countries that form a part of the United Nations, barring three (China, Türkiye, and Azerbaijan), which sided with Pakistan amid the conflict.

"No country in the world stopped India from acting in its defence. The UN has 193 countries – only three spoke in favour of Pakistan during Operation Sindoor. All other countries supported India,” the prime minister said.

The Quint had done a deep-dive analysis after a majority of the seven all-party delegations dispatched following Operation Sindoor to explain New Delhi's position on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism had crossed the halfway marks of their trips abroad. The aim of the analysis was to gauge how effective the government's outreach had been.

Of the 20 countries analysed out of 32 which were part of the delegations' itinerary (during the time of publication, 12 countries were yet to be visited), it was found that while most countries condemned terror and expressed their support and solidarity with India in this regard, not a single official in any country outrightly condemned Pakistan's backing of terrorists, barring Sierra Leone's Deputy Defence Minister Muana Brima Massaquoi.

Also, while most Indian delegations expressed that they received support from their host countries regarding the fight against Pakistan-sponsored terror as well as backing at multilateral forums, the same had not been publicly conveyed by the countries' officials or local media outlets.

Unanswered Questions Remain

Amid the several points of contention between the government, the Opposition and President Trump's narrative on the conflict, there are also some pivotal questions which have thus far remained unanswered by the government.

1. How many jets did India lose amid Operation Sindoor?

The Opposition has been raising the question of Indian jets lost since 1 June, when Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chouhan had said on the sidelines of the Shang-Ri La Dialogue in Singapore that the Indian Air Force had lost some aircrafts on 7 May, but it changed its tactics to inflict damage on Pakistan's military infrastructure.

During the debate on Tuesday, 29 July, Rahul Gandhi raised the issue once more, citing a statement by India's defence attache to Indonesia who had said that India lost some fighter jets on the first day of the conflict with Pakistan due to initial restrictions imposed by the government on striking Pakistan's military establishments.

"...We did lose some aircrafts and that happened only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishments and their air defences,” Indian Navy officer Captain Shiv Kumar had said during a seminar in Jakarta on 10 June.

Launching an attack against the government, Gandhi cited Kumar's statements to say that the Modi government had "tied the Army's hands behind their back".

In response to the allegations, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not give any clear answer about how many Indian jets were lost amid the conflict.

"The Opposition sometimes asks about planes shot down. Their question does not represent India’s sentiments," Singh said, adding, "When the goals are big, we should not focus on comparatively small matters; else we focus on small issues and lose focus on big issues like the enthusiasm and honour of soldiers, as is happening with the Opposition."

2. Accountability over the Pahalgam terror attack

The Opposition also questioned the government about who would be held accountable for the alleged "intelligence failure" and "lack of security" which led to the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack.

"It is a big failure of our government and intelligence agencies. Who will take responsibility of this? Has anyone resigned? They (the government) keep talking about past but who will answer about what is happening in present?" Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked.

She further added that Home Minister Amit Shah had visited Jammu and Kashmir just two weeks before the terror attack took place to review the security infrastructure in the erstwhile state.

"When the home minister visited Kashmir, he said that victory has been achieved against terrorism. The IB comes under the Home Ministry. Did the Home Minister resign following the attack? Forget resignation. Did he even take responsibility? Why wasn't a single security personnel stationed at Baisaran Valley?" Gandhi asked.

Similarly, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi said that a "systemic failure" had led to the deaths of the 26 civilians in Pahalgam.

“When RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) and IB (Intelligence Bureau) had already flagged suspicious activity, why was no action taken? A US-based company showed a Pakistani firm was looking for detailed maps of J&K for reconnaissance," Kanimozhi said.