Of course, it is a fact that democracy can be healthy only when there is a strong opposition or opposition, but there is also a third party in a democracy which is called 'Lok Paksha'. It is this party that always keeps the ruling and opposition alert and also demonstrates the strongest on which both sides depend. It is the people's party that keeps changing power in a democracy between the power and the opposition, but when there is a crisis on the nation, both sides of the government and the opposition are absorbed in the 'public consciousness' and it becomes the collective responsibility of both to awaken the public consciousness in the national interest. In Operation Sindoor launched against Pakistan, we saw the entire opposition stand up in support of the government and vow to move forward unitedly to face this crisis on the nation. Of course, in a democracy, the task of the opposition is to ask questions to the ruling party in public interest, but when there is a crisis on the nation, all these questions are absorbed in the public consciousness and the national consciousness and the public consciousness become one together.
From this point of view, the opposition tried to stand up to the issue of Pakistan and tried to keep its questions restrained in the beginning, but we saw this effort breaking down very quickly when the leaders of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Shri Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge respectively, started raising questions about Operation Sindoor. There was no question of the loss suffered by India during the military action of Operation Sindoor, but the issue of the loss to the enemy country Pakistan was different. If there is any loss to our brave armies, it will be called a natural loss of war because when the armies of two countries take the front, there is some loss to the victorious side too. For example, in World War II, the Allied countries such as America, Russia, Britain and France etc. won over Germany, but the Soviet Union suffered the most in this war and its 2.5 million soldiers were killed. Well, that was a world war.
If we talk about the Indo-Pak war of 1965, then the territories won by Pakistan by Indian forces had to be vacated by India after the Tashkent Agreement was signed. In this war, the Indian forces were reduced to a few hundred meters away from 'Bata Chowk' in Lahore city. After this war, India's economy was so shabby that it did not have foreign exchange to meet its import needs for barely a few weeks. For this reason, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who became the Prime Minister after the untimely death of the great hero of this war, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, had to devalue the rupee against the dollar for the first time in independent India. But in Operation Sindoor, there has been only a four-day war between India and Pakistan so far and on that, the opposition started asking as soon as the war was postponed, tell me how many Indian aircraft have fallen in this war? This question is only a confirmation of the claims being made by Pakistan which the opposition should have avoided.
The opposition is also demanding that a special session of Parliament should be convened to discuss Operation Sindoor and the government should explain what has been the position of India. In this context, the question is that when the operation started on the midnight of May 6 was postponed on May 10, how was it first announced by US President Donald Trump, but the opposition turning it into a public discourse is not justified because the government is saying that Operation Sindoor is still going on. Obviously, the opposition would like to get the answer to this question from the government in Parliament because every word spoken in it is set in stone. Of course, in a democracy, the opposition has the right to demand a special session of Parliament, which happened in 1962 when China invaded India.
Today's opposition party Congress is also demanding to convene a special session by giving the example of this. During the Indo-China war in 1962, the Jana Sangh leader was the late Jana Sangh. On the demand of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee was appointed as the Prime Minister. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to convene a special session. Later, a no-confidence motion against his government was also moved by Acharya Kripalani, which was defeated. But it should be remembered that this was a total war and India was defeated. Then Nehru was appointed as his Defence Minister. V.K. Krishnamenon had to resign. But in Operation Sindoor, India has blown Pakistan's senses and has destroyed its nine terrorist bases and 11 air bases. All this was done without crossing the international border. Won't the opposition congratulate the Indian forces for this? This is the public aspect of today, which the opposition is not able to read correctly.