Questions remain unanswered after PM's address to nation: Prithviraj Chavan

Mumbai, May 12 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation after Operation Sindoor was high on rhetoric but left several questions unanswered.

Talking to PTI, Chavan said there was no mention of whether the Kashmir issue has been internationalised, and also of the Simla agreement.

''US president Donald Trump has managed to hyphenate the India-Pakistan relationship and has treated India on par with Pakistan. Is India ready to accept this position,'' Chavan asked.

"Now if there is a fresh terror attack, India will start war which means any two-bit terrorist can carry out a terror attack and there will be war," he said.

Modi should have spoken about whether the Indian response was ''beyond imagination'' as he had promised in Bihar after the Pahalgam terror attack, the former Union minister said.

The PM should have responded to Trump's latest speech saying he will not do trade with India and Pakistan unless they stop war, he said.

''What happened to the Pahalgam terrorists? Who were the Americans talking to, the political leadership, military or bureaucrats,'' Chavan asked.

''The Prime Minister's speech was full of rhetoric and he did not answer questions," he said.

He also said that there was no clarity about losses on either side.

The PM was also silent on the issue of an all-party meeting or a special session of Parliament (as demanded by Congress), said Chavan.

NCP (SP) spokesperson Clyde Crasto told PTI that Pakistan cannot be trusted. ''We have to be alert and make sure that a third-party mediation is not allowed," he said.

In his first address to the nation after Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday sternly warned Pakistan that India will not succumb to nuclear blackmail and sent a clear message to the world: terror and trade, terror and talks cannot go together.

"Operation Sindoor is India's new policy against terrorism. We have only kept in abeyance our operations against Pakistan and the future will depend on their behaviour," Modi said. PTI MR KRK