'It's clear from the speech that PM Modi lost direction' I Manickam Tagore interview

As the political temperature rises over Operation Sindoor and the subsequent ceasefire with Pakistan, Congress MP Manickam Tagore shares sharp criticisms of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 102-minute speech in Parliament and his government's handling of India’s foreign and security affairs. In a candid conversation with The Federal’s Vijay Srinivas, Tagore also explains his party’s next steps on the controversial SIR exercise in Bihar and the alleged misuse of institutional power.

What is your view on Prime Minister Modi’s Lok Sabha speech and his absence from the Rajya Sabha during the Operation Sindoor discussion?

Yesterday itself we were able to see that the Prime Minister has lost direction. The way he used to speak before in the same Parliament, bringing new information and narrations, was missing. Instead, it felt like he was copying Amit Shah’s earlier speech word for word.

He looked tired and was unable to defend the critical issues raised by the Opposition. We were focussed on the Pahalgam failure, the intelligence failure, and accountability. Priyanka Gandhi raised these points and Rahul Gandhi clearly spoke about how we’ve messed up our foreign policy in the Sindoor operation.

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Despite Rahul Gandhi’s support for the armed forces and the IAF, he also highlighted how President Trump has claimed - now 27 times - that he personally negotiated the ceasefire. Our leader made it clear that unless India responds strongly to such assertions, we will lose ground. Modi failed to answer any of these points and is now avoiding the Rajya Sabha altogether.

Modi first called Operation Sindoor a “victory” outside Parliament, but now he refuses to even face the House. He’s hiding behind usual characters like Tejashwi, Sambit Patra, and Amit Shah, who only speak about the past. As the former Congress president rightly said, Modi avoids talking about the present and the future.

The BJP continues to invoke Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy to attack the Congress. But your party leaders rarely defend Nehru in Parliament the way they do Indira Gandhi. Has Nehru become a liability for the Congress?

Not at all. Modi, Amit Shah, and the RSS always project Nehru as their enemy number one. They keep repeating the same things like parrots. Every government has its shortcomings, especially in its early years. After Independence, the first 20 years were extremely challenging for India.

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They may want to retell that history their way, but the people of India know that Nehru did his job. The BJP may call it mistakes, but I would call them shortcomings - natural during a young nation’s formative years.

The BJP mocked the Congress for not allowing senior leaders like Shashi Tharoor or Manish Tewari to speak on foreign affairs. Why weren’t they fielded during this key discussion?

These are parliamentary strategies. We don’t dictate who speaks, unlike the BJP. Should we ask why Nitin Gadkari didn’t speak? Or why Piyush Goyal didn’t address foreign affairs despite his intelligence? Or why Nirmala Sitharaman, a former Defence Minister, wasn’t fielded?

We don’t ask them such questions, and we hope they don’t ask us either.

Also Read: Trump embarrasses Modi again? Ceasefire claim sparks political storm

You’ve criticised Shashi Tharoor in the past. Has he become the party’s punching bag, and doesn’t this public criticism give the BJP an edge?

That’s a misunderstanding. Shashi Tharoor is a senior leader and a member of the Congress Working Committee. If people outside the party want to keep misunderstanding, I can't help that.

You mentioned President Trump’s repeated claims of brokering the ceasefire. Now he’s imposed 25 pc tariffs on Indian goods. Has Modi’s highly-publicised friendship with Trump cost India dearly?

India’s foreign policy was once well-crafted - from Nehru to Indira Gandhi to Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh. It was consistent and aimed at national interests, not individual image-building.

But under Modi, foreign policy has become event-based - meant for applause at airports, not real outcomes. His publicised bonhomie with Trump has collapsed. Trump now sees Modi as the weakest link and uses that to his advantage.

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Trump operates with a real estate mindset - deal-making, not diplomacy. And Modi’s failure to counter this approach is costing India. His missteps are now resulting in these damaging tariffs. India will suffer because of Modi and Amit Shah’s flawed foreign policy.

Your party seems unsatisfied with the government’s response to Operation Sindoor. What will be the next step - will you continue to press these questions or shift focus to other issues like SIR?

We were clear from the beginning of this session: we wanted a debate on the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor. The first week was lost to the government’s arrogance, but eventually they allowed the debate. For three days, both Houses functioned and even passed the Manipur motion.

Now, our focus is on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). SIR is an attack on democracy - it aims to take away voting rights of poor people without cause. The Supreme Court has already advised the Election Commission to accept Aadhaar and ration cards to verify identity, but the EC is ignoring this.

Also Read: Modi’s speech in LS didn’t address Pahalgam ‘intel failure,’ Trump’s claims, says Oppn

Under Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar, the EC is behaving like a BJP election agent. Bihar is only the beginning. If SIR succeeds there, it will be replicated in Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. We know Amit Shah’s record of using undemocratic means to win elections. Now he’s trying a new method through the EC.

Our fight is to protect the Election Commission and to save Indian democracy from being captured by Amit Shah and his loyalists.

(The content above has been transcribed from video using a fine-tuned AI model. To ensure accuracy, quality, and editorial integrity, we employ a Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) process. While AI assists in creating the initial draft, our experienced editorial team carefully reviews, edits, and refines the content before publication. At The Federal, we combine the efficiency of AI with the expertise of human editors to deliver reliable and insightful journalism.)