Alka Lamba Blunder in Congress press conference: Mistakenly Calls Operation Sindoor as Operation Blue Star

Alka Lamba Blunder: During a recent press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi, All India Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba unintentionally stirred a political storm by referring to ‘Operation Sindoor’ as ‘Operation Blue Star’. The slip occurred while she was addressing the media to criticise the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over controversial remarks made by its leaders in the wake of the recent terror attack in Pahalgam.

The Congress leader had been highlighting the insensitivity of certain BJP members, particularly MP Ram Chander Jangra, who made headlines after suggesting that tourists should have fought back against the terrorists during the Pahalgam attack. As Lamba spoke passionately about the need for the government to take accountability and inform both Houses of Parliament about the military operation in question, she mistakenly referred to the recent counter-terror action, known as ‘Operation Sindoor’, as ‘Operation Blue Star’—a completely different and historically sensitive event from 1984.

Watch Alka Lamba Blunder

Realising the gravity of her mistake, Lamba later issued a clarification, attributing the comment to a slip of the tongue. She accused the BJP of exploiting the gaffe to divert public attention from pressing national issues and the core matter of government accountability regarding internal security.

However, the BJP quickly seized on the error, turning it into a political talking point. BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla accused Lamba of not just a verbal misstep, but a reflection of the Congress party’s alleged mindset. In a strongly worded post on social media platform X, Poonawalla claimed the comment was not accidental but part of a broader trend within Congress to undermine the Indian armed forces. He linked Lamba’s remark to previous statements made by other senior Congress leaders, suggesting a pattern of disrespect.

During the same press meet, Lamba also played a video clip of BJP MP Vijay Shah, where he appeared to make derogatory remarks about Colonel Sophiya Qureshi. She went on to condemn Madhya Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda’s statement, in which he credited PM Modi and claimed both the Indian Army and the nation bowed before the Prime Minister for his role in ‘Operation Sindoor’.

Lamba further alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was attempting to capitalise politically on the military operation, pointing out that a banner had surfaced depicting Modi in an army officer’s uniform—a move she described as an inappropriate bid to associate the PM directly with the armed forces’ achievements.

As the controversy unfolds, the slip of a single word has opened the door to deeper political debates, with both parties accusing each other of disrespecting the military and using sensitive issues for political gain.