After ceasefire, Opposition seeks special Parliament session, questions US involvement

Opposition leaders on Saturday said that in the wake of the agreement between India and Pakistan to stop military operations, the government should now call for a special session of Parliament.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh demanded that apart from a special session of Parliament, the government should also call for an all-party meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during which he could “take the country’s political parties into confidence, so that national interests can be protected in this moment of crisis”.

Ramesh said that during a special parliamentary session, extensive discussions could be held on the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, and the events in the 18 days since then, so that “the country could come together to show a united resolve”.

Congress leader Manish Tewari noted that United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while announcing the ceasefire, had said that both countries would hold discussions about a broad set of topics at a neutral site, The Indian Express reported.

“This clearly constitutes third party mediation and it demonstrates that the bilateralism, which was intrinsic to the Simla agreement of 1972, now seems to be a template of the past,” Tewari said.

Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi posted a photo on X of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi inspecting armed forces, and said: “It is not easy to be Indira Gandhi.”

Later in the day, Singhvi said it was necessary to drive home the full advantage of any initiative, instead of leaving it half done.

“Never half hang or half kill a person if he has harmed you,” the Rajya Sabha MP said. “Either punish him fully or let him be. Wonder what gains were made by a three day skirmish and, more importantly, hope we have not frittered away those gains by any premature ceasefire.”

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav also called for a special Parliament session, during which the government could provide “give date-wise and point-wise information from the terrorist incident of Pahalgam to the ceasefire declaration”.

Yadav said that at such a session, the citizens of the country, through Parliament, could “express gratitude for the valour of the armed forces”, and send a united message to Pakistan, which he said was running a “laboratory of terror”.

The agreement sought to put an end to four days of military tensions that escalated on May 7 when the Indian military on Wednesday carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The strikes were in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

The Pakistan Army retaliated by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

On Thursday, the Indian armed forces said they had neutralised attempts by Pakistan to use drones and missiles to target military installations in 15 towns and cities on Wednesday night. That evening, India said it had repulsed several attacks using drones and other munitions along the western border.

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