‘Falsely Represented…’: Govt Clarifies After Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Pakistan Was Informed’ Post

SOURCE ; NEW18

Last Updated:May 17, 2025, 21:48 IST

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has also said that a statement on the timing of Pakistan being informed was being falsely represented.

The BJP on Saturday accused senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi of spreading misinformation and serving as a “propaganda tool” of Pakistan after the latter had claimed that the government had informed Pakistan at the start of Operation Sindoor.

What MEA Said?

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has also said that a statement on the timing of Pakistan being informed was being falsely represented.

“We had warned Pakistan at the start, which is clearly the early phase after Operation Sindoor’s commencement. This is being falsely represented as being before the commencement. This utter misrepresentation of facts is being called out,” the MEA had said.

What Rahul Gandhi Claimed?

The Lok Sabha LoP on Saturday shared an undated video of External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar in which he was heard saying that at the start of Operation Sindoor, a message was sent to Pakistan that only terror bases were being struck.

“At the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan, saying we are striking at terrorist infrastructure and we are not striking at the military. So the military has the option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice,” Jaishankar can be heard saying in the video.

While sharing the video, Gandhi wrote, “Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI (government of India) did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result.”

BJP Slams Rahul Gandhi

BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari hit back at the Lok Sabha LoP and accused him of spreading “fake news” and asked if the Congress was unhappy with the demolition of terror infrastructure in Pakistan under Operation Sindoor.

“Stop spreading fake news, Rahul Gandhi,” Bhandhari wrote on X.

He also posted a screenshot of the government’s PIB Fact Check unit’s post on X which had rejected a similar claim earlier this week, as “misleading.”

“Old habits die hard. Rahul Gandhi who was partying after the 26/11 Mumbai Terror attack, and who was officially quoted by Pakistani military in its press conference is back to question our forces,” Bhandari charged in another post on X.

“Is Congress unhappy that Operation Sindoor demolished terror infrastructure in Pakistan,” he asked.

Another BJP national spokesperson Ajay Alok accused the Congress leader of speaking for Pakistan and asked him to “stop being a propaganda tool of Pakistan”.

“You have been doing this for the last three generations,” Alok said in a video message on X, reacting to Gandhi’s remarks.

The PIB, in a post on Thursday, had fact-checked a claim by a journalist in which he alleged that Jaishankar had said India informed Pakistan before the start of Operation Sindoor that it would be hitting terrorist infrastructure in the country.

“The social media post falsely implies from External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar’s statement that India informed Pakistan before the start of #OperationSindoor. EAM is being misquoted and he has not made this statement. Remain vigilant and avoid falling for deceptive information,” the PIB said in the post.

Operation Sindoor

India launched “precision strikes” under Operation Sindoor on nine terror targets in Pakistan and PoK following the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians. The strikes killed at least 10 family members of JeM chief Masood Azhar and four close aides.

The sites targeted were the Pakistani bases at Rafiqui (Shorkot, Jhang), Murid (Chakwal), Nur Khan (Chaklala, Rawalpindi) Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Chunian (Kasur). In the strikes, the air bases in Skardu, Bholari, Jacobabad and Sargodha suffered extensive damage.

Within a tightly coordinated 24-minute window, India targeted 21 terror camps linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) across nine locations, four in Pakistan and five in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). The targets were not just aimed at avenging the Pahalgam attack, but also targeting terror sites where other such attacks were planned.

First Published:

May 17, 2025, 21:46 IST