During the Lok Sabha’s debate on Operation Sindoor on July 29, 2025, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a fierce criticism of the Congress, asserting that former party president Sonia Gandhi wept for terrorists killed in the Batla House encounter of September 19, 2008, while showing no sorrow for the slain police personnel . Shah cited a video of seasoned Congress leader Salman Khurshid visibly upset on TV, claiming Khurshid said Sonia Gandhi cried over the terrorists - not the martyr inspector Mohan Chand Sharma who died in the encounter .

Shah demanded accountability from Congress, stating: “If you had to cry, it should have been for martyr Mohan Sharma - not the terrorists.” He further constrained the party’s right to criticize the government’s anti-terror operations, arguing that Congress harbors a soft corner for terrorists.

The comments escalated the political temperature in the House, as Shah intertwined this narrative with broader criticism - including his previously reported evidence-based rebuttal to P. Chidambaram’s suggestion of “homegrown terrorists” and his fiery recounting of Operation Mahadev‘s success. The Lok Sabha session saw rising tensions as the debate pivoted from counter-terror operations to legacy politics and ideological positioning.