Modi Turns Pahalgam-Op Sindoor Debate Into Damp Squib, Avoids Key Questions; Against RSS Chief’s Narrow View of ‘Bharatiyata’ and ‘Bharat’; Microsoft sanctions Russia-linked Indian Firm

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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Over to Siddharth Varadarajan for today’s Cable

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Snapshot of the day

July 29, 2025

Siddharth Varadarajan

The debate in Parliament over the terrorist massacre in Pahalgam and the Modi government’s military response to Pakistan has ended with key questions remaining unanswered: (1) What were the lapses which led to the attack at Pahalgam in which 26 persons were killed? (2) What were the losses sustained by the Indian Air Force during Operation Sindoor and were these losses caused by a political constraint imposed by the government, as military officials have suggested? (3) What exactly was the role of US President Donald Trump in bringing an apparently premature end to Op Sindoor? (4) If “no leader in the world” asked India to stop, how come Trump is the one who announced the ceasefire more than an hour before either India or Pakistan did?

Instead of shedding light on these matters, Modi, who spoke for two hours today, preferred to avoid addressing them. Worse, he remained absent for most of the debate and timed his arrival in the Lok Sabha to just before it was