BJP Launches Fierce Attack on Rahul Gandhi After Air Chief Amar Preet Singh Rejects ‘IAF Restrictions’ Claim in Operation Sindoor

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) launched a scathing attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh rejected the opposition's claim that the Indian Air Force (IAF) was constrained during Operation Sindoor.

​​During the operation discussion in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, accused the Centre of directing the IAF not to strike Pakistan's air defense system. "You urged our pilots to assault and confront Pakistan's air defense system. Meaning, you tied their wrists behind their backs," he claimed.

In an address on Thursday, Air Chief Marshal Singh credited “very clear political will” as a key factor behind the operation’s success, which was launched to avenge the killing of 26 civilians in a terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. “I am being very, very candid here… there were no kind of restrictions which were put on us,” he said, adding that six Pakistani aircraft were downed.

He also stated that operational choices, such as rules of engagement and escalation control, were determined by the soldiers themselves. “If there were any constraints, they were self-made… there were no, I repeat, no restrictions on us. Full freedom was given to us to plan and execute,” Singh stated.

The Air Force Chief's remarks sparked a furious reaction from the BJP. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju accused Gandhi of degrading parliamentary norms. “Why do you keep lying all the time?… You have not only lowered your stature but damaged India’s high reputation,” he said.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the remarks “should put the Congress party to shame”, accusing its leaders of spreading lies on India’s losses and of running a “Pak-originated disinfo campaign” against the Modi government’s military policy, claims he said had now been “debunked comprehensively.”

Gandhi further alleged that India lost fighter planes because its men were not given a free hand.

Following Singh’s disclosure, BJP leader Amit Malviya said there was a “deathly silence” in the Congress and Pakistani media. “With this disclosure, whatever little credibility the Leader of Opposition had is now in tatters, if he had any to begin with,” he remarked.