NEW DELHI: "If terrorism is a rabid dog, Pakistan is its vile handler. We must first unite the world to tackle this wild handler—else it will continue to breed more rabid dogs," boomed TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee ’s emotional voice to thunderous applause from the Indian diaspora in Tokyo.
The rest of Abhishek's speech was in sync with what the government has repeatedly reiterated. He said Pakistan was given ample time to clean its house, and when it refused to act, India — “honourable in action” — decimated nine terror establishments across the border without harming civilian infrastructure.
Missed opportunity
Abhishek's succinct portrayal of India’s modus operandi to the global community has been eclipsed only by Shashi Tharoor in the opposition ranks, who not only took Pakistan to the cleaners but, in his suave manner, blasted Donald Trump’s repeated hyphenation of India-Pakistan and his boastful claim of using trade as leverage to broker peace.
Tharoor's jab at “gentleman” Trump may have earned him further plaudits among a growing mass of admirers, but Congress is unlikely to gain political brownie points from it. Its barely hidden contempt for Tharoor’s freewheeling, independent stance, evident in not nominating him for the all-party meet is another example of an organisation that has failed to read the room and has shown strategic tone-deafness. Congress, despite its diplomatic pedigree, missed an opportunity to leverage its best communicator on foreign soil. As a former Under-Secretary-General of the UN and MoS MEA, Tharoor holds elite credentials to lucidly elucidate India’s stance on terror, and not nominating the four-time MP is certainly not a fair assessment of his skillset.
Incidentally, the government had sought to overrule both Congress and TMC in nominating leaders of its choice. In TMC's case, in the absence of the ailing Sudip Banerjee, it nominated Yusuf Pathan , while Tharoor was incidentally named as head of the group visiting the US and four other countries. While TMC put its foot down and insisted on selecting its own representative, eventually ensuring that Abhishek Banerjee flew to Tokyo, Congress neither managed to persuade the ruling dispensation nor dissuade Tharoor from leading the delegation.
Game of narrative
Even in domestic optics, Congress appears to be trailing. Regarding the visit to Poonch, Congress seems to have taken a leaf out of TMC’s book. According to J&K CM Omar Abdullah, it was the TMC that initiated the process of visiting Poonch, which bore the brunt of Pakistan’s barbarism during Operation Sindoor , leading to the deaths of innocent civilians.
Abhishek Banerjee visiting Rash Behari Bose's grave in Tokyo, a key aide of Netaji, has resonated with Bengali nationalists. Taking cue from Abhishek, the rest of the delegation, along with the Indian ambassador, went to pay their respects, which TMC touted as “Bengal showing the way.”
Netaji's grandnephew Chandra Bose, too, praised Abhishek Banerjee for visiting the historic site. When contacted by the Times of India, former BJP leader Chandra Kumar Bose was emphatic that this is the time for national unity and that TMC is doing what any responsible party should do. He hoped that Congress too would mellow its belligerence and keep all the probing questions for a later day, probably once Parliament is in session. His impassioned plea to all political parties is to maintain communal harmony and not be swayed by the evil designs of the Pahalgam terrorists.
Learning from the past or just opportunism?
Professor Sibaji Pratim Basu believes there is more than meets the eye in TMC's extremely well-calibrated stance post-Operation Sindoor. He argues that with assembly elections due in Bengal in a year, the party is in no mood to put a foot wrong. However, once the election draws closer, TMC may well tighten the screws on the BJP, questioning why the government didn’t go for the jugular and attempt to take PoK. The likes of Madhya Pradesh BJP minister Vijay Shah passing disparaging comments against Colonel Sofiya Qureshi will also be raised before the appropriate electorate, Basu believes.
As for Congress, he contends that the party is willing to play hardball because this year is relatively election-free until the end — and in any case, it isn’t a major player in Bihar. According to him, the lack of effective messaging remains the biggest flaw in Rahul Gandhi ’s political playbook. The fact that Shashi Tharoor has provided a ringing endorsement of India’s policy regarding Operation Sindoor, Basu predicts, will be used by the BJP to blunt the pointed queries of the grand old party in Parliament.
Political analyst Professor Subhamoy Maitra looks at TMC's strategy through a critical lens. He believes TMC is a party that isn’t ideologically driven. It operates through meticulous political planning in an opportunistic fashion. Maitra minces no words and calls TMC a “political chameleon” — hawkish on foreign policy one day, repositioning itself as a peacenik the next, if the situation demands. According to the veteran analyst, TMC, assured of a lion’s share of the minority vote, is now also trying to make the right noises for the majority community ahead of the assembly election next year.
Maitra believes Abhishek Banerjee's visit hits the mark politically, but can’t help wondering if the entire episode — from Yusuf Pathan’s withdrawal to the TMC general secretary stepping in — was a well-coordinated political stunt. As for Congress, Professor Maitra believes the grand old party is staying true to its centrist roots and is therefore shying away from completely mirroring the BJP on a national security issue. He infers that the party is merely leveraging the lack of transparency in the India–US equation.
Professor Basu and many others believe TMC has learnt from past missteps. After the Pulwama attack, Mamata Banerjee had taken a controversial stance by asking for proof of India’s assault on Balakot. It didn’t play out well with the masses, and the BJP had a field day branding her anti-national. At a 2019 election rally in Kolkata, PM Modi said, “Kolkata’s Didi was more pained than people in Islamabad and Rawalpindi…Leaders of the mahagathbandhan...shouted so much that they became heroes in Pakistan.”
Politics is often driven by narrative — and that’s where TMC had failed to read the tea leaves post-Balakot. Other opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, who campaigned hard on alleged corruption in the Rafale deal, were humbled in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The BJP, surprisingly, delivered its best-ever performance in Bengal, winning 18 of the state’s 42 seats.
Congress ups the ante
From the clarion call to annex PoK to Abhishek’s pointed “rabid dog” analogy, TMC is eager to match the BJP’s fervent nationalistic pitch. Congress, on the other hand, after a muted response during Operation Sindoor, has upped the political ante. Its sharp attack on S Jaishankar for what felt like a clearly out-of-context comment has baffled many. Congress leader Pawan Khera has already referred to Jaishankar as Jaichand, the medieval ruler who helped “outsider” Muhammad Ghori defeat Prithviraj Chauhan.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has posted on X calling the External Affairs Minister “JJ,” posing three questions and claiming “India’s foreign policy has collapsed.” While what “JJ” means is open to interpretation, the phrasing of the questions virtually endorses Trump’s assertions about brokering peace.
How government has responded
Sure, the government should clarify Trump’s claims, and when asked on foreign soil, Jaishankar cheekily said, “The US was in the United States” during Operation Sindoor. Tharoor again rightly dissected Trump’s logic, exposing its transactional underbelly and performative bravado. But the rest of Congress seems more interested in scoring quick hits than crafting a coherent foreign policy stance.
As for the accusation that Jaishankar informed Pakistan in advance, even P Chidambaram has responded in guarded fashion. He told Indian Express that Rahul Gandhi rightly asked, and the MEA has clarified, hence, “I have no further comment.” Where Congress could have genuinely grilled the government was on why the Pahalgam attackers haven’t been caught even after a month, or how the attack was allowed to happen in the first place. Instead, it went off-script, launching personal tirades — a risky strategy at a time when the nation appears united behind Operation Sindoor.
Jaishankar, on his part, has clarified in the Consultative Committee of Parliament that Pakistan was only informed after India had hit the terror targets. According to sources, he also cleared the air on Trump’s mediation claims, stating emphatically that the ceasefire was initiated solely through bilateral discussion after Pakistan reached out. Congress sources, however, maintain that they are not fully satisfied with the explanation provided.
PM Modi, too, speaking from his home state, indirectly addressed Trump’s claim, stating that it was Pakistan that couldn’t bear India’s military onslaught and waved the white flag. Appealing to the good sense of Pakistani citizens, he urged them to remove their country from the clutches of terrorism. If the red lines are crossed,"the bullets are ready,” came the dire warning.
It remains to be seen how Congress responds to this emphatic assertion from PM Modi about how events unfolded during Operation Sindoor. So far, Congress’s messaging has appeared muddled and misdirected, a sharp contrast to its INDIA ally, TMC. The likes of Alka Lamba’s gaffe, calling Operation Sindoor “Operation Blue Star,” have certainly not helped its cause. There may still be time to course-correct, but for now, TMC has emerged as the craftier and more calibrated opposition.
In a year where perception may outweigh ideology, the real contest may be between message discipline and narrative drift.
The rest of Abhishek's speech was in sync with what the government has repeatedly reiterated. He said Pakistan was given ample time to clean its house, and when it refused to act, India — “honourable in action” — decimated nine terror establishments across the border without harming civilian infrastructure.
Missed opportunity
Abhishek's succinct portrayal of India’s modus operandi to the global community has been eclipsed only by Shashi Tharoor in the opposition ranks, who not only took Pakistan to the cleaners but, in his suave manner, blasted Donald Trump’s repeated hyphenation of India-Pakistan and his boastful claim of using trade as leverage to broker peace.
Tharoor's jab at “gentleman” Trump may have earned him further plaudits among a growing mass of admirers, but Congress is unlikely to gain political brownie points from it. Its barely hidden contempt for Tharoor’s freewheeling, independent stance, evident in not nominating him for the all-party meet is another example of an organisation that has failed to read the room and has shown strategic tone-deafness. Congress, despite its diplomatic pedigree, missed an opportunity to leverage its best communicator on foreign soil. As a former Under-Secretary-General of the UN and MoS MEA, Tharoor holds elite credentials to lucidly elucidate India’s stance on terror, and not nominating the four-time MP is certainly not a fair assessment of his skillset.
Incidentally, the government had sought to overrule both Congress and TMC in nominating leaders of its choice. In TMC's case, in the absence of the ailing Sudip Banerjee, it nominated Yusuf Pathan , while Tharoor was incidentally named as head of the group visiting the US and four other countries. While TMC put its foot down and insisted on selecting its own representative, eventually ensuring that Abhishek Banerjee flew to Tokyo, Congress neither managed to persuade the ruling dispensation nor dissuade Tharoor from leading the delegation.
Game of narrative
Even in domestic optics, Congress appears to be trailing. Regarding the visit to Poonch, Congress seems to have taken a leaf out of TMC’s book. According to J&K CM Omar Abdullah, it was the TMC that initiated the process of visiting Poonch, which bore the brunt of Pakistan’s barbarism during Operation Sindoor , leading to the deaths of innocent civilians.
#WATCH | Srinagar: On Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi's visit to Poonch tomorrow, J&K CM Omar Abdullah says, "Yes, he will visit Poonch. He will meet the people there and express his sympathies. I am thankful to the TMC for initiating it. Five of their members came here and visited by… pic.twitter.com/YZ3U26p1b9
— ANI (@ANI) May 23, 2025
Abhishek Banerjee visiting Rash Behari Bose's grave in Tokyo, a key aide of Netaji, has resonated with Bengali nationalists. Taking cue from Abhishek, the rest of the delegation, along with the Indian ambassador, went to pay their respects, which TMC touted as “Bengal showing the way.”
Bengal shows the way
— Kunal Ghosh (@KunalGhoshAgain) May 24, 2025
The timing of their visit is interesting given the fact that yesterday Shri Abhishek Banerjee went there and paid the tributes and highlighted the memorial of Shri Rash Behari Bose in such a neglected and dilapidated state.
He had also requested the… https://t.co/qB6M5dreTI
Netaji's grandnephew Chandra Bose, too, praised Abhishek Banerjee for visiting the historic site. When contacted by the Times of India, former BJP leader Chandra Kumar Bose was emphatic that this is the time for national unity and that TMC is doing what any responsible party should do. He hoped that Congress too would mellow its belligerence and keep all the probing questions for a later day, probably once Parliament is in session. His impassioned plea to all political parties is to maintain communal harmony and not be swayed by the evil designs of the Pahalgam terrorists.
Learning from the past or just opportunism?
Professor Sibaji Pratim Basu believes there is more than meets the eye in TMC's extremely well-calibrated stance post-Operation Sindoor. He argues that with assembly elections due in Bengal in a year, the party is in no mood to put a foot wrong. However, once the election draws closer, TMC may well tighten the screws on the BJP, questioning why the government didn’t go for the jugular and attempt to take PoK. The likes of Madhya Pradesh BJP minister Vijay Shah passing disparaging comments against Colonel Sofiya Qureshi will also be raised before the appropriate electorate, Basu believes.
As for Congress, he contends that the party is willing to play hardball because this year is relatively election-free until the end — and in any case, it isn’t a major player in Bihar. According to him, the lack of effective messaging remains the biggest flaw in Rahul Gandhi ’s political playbook. The fact that Shashi Tharoor has provided a ringing endorsement of India’s policy regarding Operation Sindoor, Basu predicts, will be used by the BJP to blunt the pointed queries of the grand old party in Parliament.
Political analyst Professor Subhamoy Maitra looks at TMC's strategy through a critical lens. He believes TMC is a party that isn’t ideologically driven. It operates through meticulous political planning in an opportunistic fashion. Maitra minces no words and calls TMC a “political chameleon” — hawkish on foreign policy one day, repositioning itself as a peacenik the next, if the situation demands. According to the veteran analyst, TMC, assured of a lion’s share of the minority vote, is now also trying to make the right noises for the majority community ahead of the assembly election next year.
Maitra believes Abhishek Banerjee's visit hits the mark politically, but can’t help wondering if the entire episode — from Yusuf Pathan’s withdrawal to the TMC general secretary stepping in — was a well-coordinated political stunt. As for Congress, Professor Maitra believes the grand old party is staying true to its centrist roots and is therefore shying away from completely mirroring the BJP on a national security issue. He infers that the party is merely leveraging the lack of transparency in the India–US equation.
Professor Basu and many others believe TMC has learnt from past missteps. After the Pulwama attack, Mamata Banerjee had taken a controversial stance by asking for proof of India’s assault on Balakot. It didn’t play out well with the masses, and the BJP had a field day branding her anti-national. At a 2019 election rally in Kolkata, PM Modi said, “Kolkata’s Didi was more pained than people in Islamabad and Rawalpindi…Leaders of the mahagathbandhan...shouted so much that they became heroes in Pakistan.”
Politics is often driven by narrative — and that’s where TMC had failed to read the tea leaves post-Balakot. Other opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, who campaigned hard on alleged corruption in the Rafale deal, were humbled in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The BJP, surprisingly, delivered its best-ever performance in Bengal, winning 18 of the state’s 42 seats.
Congress ups the ante
From the clarion call to annex PoK to Abhishek’s pointed “rabid dog” analogy, TMC is eager to match the BJP’s fervent nationalistic pitch. Congress, on the other hand, after a muted response during Operation Sindoor, has upped the political ante. Its sharp attack on S Jaishankar for what felt like a clearly out-of-context comment has baffled many. Congress leader Pawan Khera has already referred to Jaishankar as Jaichand, the medieval ruler who helped “outsider” Muhammad Ghori defeat Prithviraj Chauhan.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has posted on X calling the External Affairs Minister “JJ,” posing three questions and claiming “India’s foreign policy has collapsed.” While what “JJ” means is open to interpretation, the phrasing of the questions virtually endorses Trump’s assertions about brokering peace.
Will JJ explain:
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 23, 2025
• Why has India been hyphenated with Pakistan?
• Why didn’t a single country back us in condemning Pakistan?
• Who asked Trump to “mediate” between India & Pakistan?
India’s foreign policy has collapsed. https://t.co/m8q2lAFRm4
How government has responded
Sure, the government should clarify Trump’s claims, and when asked on foreign soil, Jaishankar cheekily said, “The US was in the United States” during Operation Sindoor. Tharoor again rightly dissected Trump’s logic, exposing its transactional underbelly and performative bravado. But the rest of Congress seems more interested in scoring quick hits than crafting a coherent foreign policy stance.
As for the accusation that Jaishankar informed Pakistan in advance, even P Chidambaram has responded in guarded fashion. He told Indian Express that Rahul Gandhi rightly asked, and the MEA has clarified, hence, “I have no further comment.” Where Congress could have genuinely grilled the government was on why the Pahalgam attackers haven’t been caught even after a month, or how the attack was allowed to happen in the first place. Instead, it went off-script, launching personal tirades — a risky strategy at a time when the nation appears united behind Operation Sindoor.
Jaishankar, on his part, has clarified in the Consultative Committee of Parliament that Pakistan was only informed after India had hit the terror targets. According to sources, he also cleared the air on Trump’s mediation claims, stating emphatically that the ceasefire was initiated solely through bilateral discussion after Pakistan reached out. Congress sources, however, maintain that they are not fully satisfied with the explanation provided.
PM Modi, too, speaking from his home state, indirectly addressed Trump’s claim, stating that it was Pakistan that couldn’t bear India’s military onslaught and waved the white flag. Appealing to the good sense of Pakistani citizens, he urged them to remove their country from the clutches of terrorism. If the red lines are crossed,"the bullets are ready,” came the dire warning.
It remains to be seen how Congress responds to this emphatic assertion from PM Modi about how events unfolded during Operation Sindoor. So far, Congress’s messaging has appeared muddled and misdirected, a sharp contrast to its INDIA ally, TMC. The likes of Alka Lamba’s gaffe, calling Operation Sindoor “Operation Blue Star,” have certainly not helped its cause. There may still be time to course-correct, but for now, TMC has emerged as the craftier and more calibrated opposition.
In a year where perception may outweigh ideology, the real contest may be between message discipline and narrative drift.
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