How the Left and Congress misread Operation Sindoor
Not so long ago, Yogendra Yadav, otherwise a fierce critic of the Narendra Modi government, told me that among the things those opposing the BJP got wrong was how to respond on issues of national security. The three 'most precious resources we have for politics,' he said, '...we have gifted these away to BJP — nationalism, religion, including Hindu religion, and cultural heritage and tradition.'
The responses to Operation Sindoor (and I don't mean Yogendra Yadav personally) from large swathes of the Left, liberal Left, progressives (call it what you will) show this basic lesson has still not been learnt. And worse, there is complete denialism about this deracination. If anything, there is a show of supercilious moral superiority to anyone who points this out. The Indian Left is, unfortunately, utterly out of touch with wider public sentiment. It remains squeamish about expressing unqualified appreciation for the armed forces. It is disparaging of war, even in times of war. And it is unable to understand the idea that the country is larger than the government. This remains a key reason that the right wing is able to make electoral mincemeat of them.
Intellectualising what comes to most Indians intuitively, a simple emotional surge for flag, anthem and military, confines this section of the Left only to echo chambers. I was astonished to see the level of disconnect between those still trapped in textbook ideas and how most of the country thinks and feels.
I experienced this first hand when author Salil Tripathi mocked me on X for evidently 'rolling my eyes' at the statements of former Pakistan Hina Rabbani Khar on a Piers Morgan show where I was her co-panelist. Yes, I probably did roll my eyes at one brief point when Khar obfuscated on how Osama Bin Laden was kept in hiding by the Pakistani deep state. But I also hammered home the protection and impunity offered to terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pakistan by its army. Khar fled the show early, unable to answer anything directly. But Tripathi and his followers said I was guilty of 'temporary patriotic nonsense' and that I should be very embarrassed. Everything that plagues the extreme Left's commentary on Operation Sindoor was encapsulated in that every moment.
Or take the semiotics debate around the name given to the military operation against Pakistan. Or the commentary on Aishwarya Rai sporting sindoor at her first appearance at Cannes. Mohammed Zubair, fact checker, thought there was a big conspiracy that I shared this image of Rai, editing it once to wonder whether her image was a reference to Op Sindoor or merely a sartorial statement. He took a screenshot of my post as if he had uncovered a scandal.
Tomorrow, will the Left criticise Himanshi Narwal — whose image of sitting by the body of her husband, Lt Vinay Narwal, became the defining image of the Pahalgam terror attack — for wearing the traditional red bangles or chura that signified her days-old marriage? Whatever be one's personal gender politics, it is ludicrous to ignore the cultural zeitgeist or to literalise its underlying emotion when the context is so much larger.
Of course, the Opposition can and must ask questions of the ruling government. There are legitimate concerns over where the terrorists of Pahalgam are, what lapses led to the terror attack, or why US President Donald Trump insists on claiming credit for a halt in hostilities that were unequivocally triggered by India's military victory. And, yes, there are legitimate concerns about India-Pakistan re-hyphenation in the West, thanks to Trump's bizarre rhetoric.
But surely, any serious line of questioning cannot suggest that external affairs minister S Jaishankar gave away war plans to Pakistan? Anyone who understands military operations knows Jaishankar's statement was merely about India conveying a non-escalatory approach to Operation Sindoor. To distort that into a wild accusation of treason and then wonder aloud how many planes India has lost, is entirely uncalled for and takes away the legitimacy of any other good point you may want to make.
Thankfully the Congress dropped this attack a couple of days after Rahul Gandhi led it. But political damage to itself had been done.
Yes, as the main Opposition party, the Congress does not find itself in an easy position. It is damned if it does and invisible if it doesn't. The BJP will claim political points for Sindoor and the Congress wants to contest that. Fair enough. But it can't counter the BJP by disowning its most brilliant asset on the issue — Tharoor — and other colleagues such as Manish Tewari. And it can't counter that by using the talking points of the adversary on whether any fighter jet was shot down. Not when Air Marshal AK Bharti already answered that by saying, 'in a combat there will be losses but all our pilots are home'.
Tharoor has shown that it is possible to forge a politics that is pluralistic and patriotic. Many Indians may lean centre-left on economics, many of us may identify as liberals on matters of inclusiveness and social equity, but on national security, most of us are centre-right. I know, I am. The Left — and the Congress — is unable to grasp that inconvenient, but obvious truth.
Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author. The views expressed are personal.
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