Centre tells Opposition to understand 'full context' of Defence Minister's speech as row begins over Op Sindoor deaths

A day after the government released the names of six soldiers who lost their lives during Operation Sindoor, Opposition slammed Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and accused him of lying in the Parliament. Soon after, the Centre came out with another clarification and rejected the opposition’s accusation, stating that Singh's statement should be taken in full context.

Opposition targeted Singh after social media videos of him delivering a speech on the floor of Parliament on July 28 2025 surfaced in which the Defence Minister said that no on ewas killed during the operation. However, Centre clarified that these posts have selectively quoted an isolated portion of the speech to falsely prove a point. These are deliberately misleading and factually incorrect," the statement by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) reads. “Those who have sought to construct a controversy out of the Raksha Mantri's Parliamentary address have done so by deliberately ignoring the full context of his remarks. It must be recalled that at the time of the Raksha Mantri's address, a particularly persistent and dominant narrative had taken hold, both in certain sections of the media and on social media, which claimed that Indian pilots had been lost during Operation Sindoor,” the statement addded. India launched Operation Sindoor in response to Pahalgam terror attack and targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in May 2025.

For the first time, India reveals names of six soldiers killed during Operation Sindoor

This comes after the Indian government added names of the fallen soldiers to the Roll of Honour on the National War Memorial's official website and engraved on the memorial in New Delhi. Centre has revealed that military personnel who lost lives in Operation Sindoor are: Subedar Major Pawan Kumar of Headquarters 10 Infantry Brigade, Rifleman Sunil Kumar (Vir Chakra) of 4 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar of 5 Field Regiment, Aviation Technician Mood Muralinaik of 851 Light Regiment, Havildar Sunil Kumar Singh of 237 Field Workshop Company, and Sergeant Surendra Kumar (Vayu Medal) of 39 Wing.