New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) INDIA Bloc’s Vice Presidential candidate Justice (Retd) B. Sudershan Reddy on Saturday said that he shares the entire nation’s sentiment against the killers of innocent people in Pahalgam on April 22.

“Innocent people were killed, and no one supports killers. Is there anyone in India who doesn’t feel the same way about the Pahalgam attack?” he told IANS.

He, however, refrained from expressing any views on ‘Operation Sindoor’ – a calibrated military response launched by India on May 7 to dismantle terror infrastructure across the Line of Control and in Pakistan following a Pahalgam terrorist attack.

“I haven’t gone into the details of Operation Sindoor or analysed it. It’s a security matter, and without complete knowledge, it wouldn’t be right for me to comment,” he said.

At a time when the Opposition parties have accused the NDA government of politicising Operation Sindoor, Justice Reddy’s cautions on the matter reflect his conscious effort to avoid controversies in the run-up to the September 9 Vice Presidential election.

Earlier, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge invited the BJP’s wrath for questioning Operation Sindoor and calling it a ‘chutput (small)’ war.

The BJP also hit out at the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, over his repeated questioning about ‘losses’ during the Operation Sindoor and the government’s ‘silence’ on Trump’s repeated assertions that his administration brokered the truce between India and Pakistan.

Justice Reddy has refused to call the Vice-Presidential election on September 9 a symbolic exercise due to the numerical superiority of the NDA, which has fielded C.P. Radhakrishnan against him.

“I don’t think there’s anything symbolic about this contest. That’s a misunderstanding. In Parliament, while we see the number of parties, the actual voters are individual Members of Parliament. I appeal to each MP to consider my candidature,” said Justice Reddy.

Seventy-nine-year-old Justice Reddy has a long and illustrious legal career known for his progressive and socially conscious approach to justice, access to education and judicial independence.

During his stint in the apex court from January 2007 to July 2011, while serving as the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court and working as a Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice Reddy paid special focus on access to education and judicial independence.

–IANS

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