Who won Operation Sindoor debate in Parliament? Survey shows upper hand for NDA, silver lining for Rahul Gandhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. (PTI)

The marathon debate on Operation Sindoor in both houses of Parliament appears to have garnered mixed reactions from voters with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government registering a strong performance perception while the Opposition managed to record a strong appeal among the younger demographics and women, a new survey has revealed.

According to the findings of the 'Weekly Vibe Survey on Operation Sindoor Debate in Parliament', 43.4 percent of the respondents believed that the government had a clear upper hand in terms of performance during the Parliament debate as against 33.6 percent who saw the Opposition performing better.

The findings also showed a gender gap with more men (48%) favouring the government as against 39 percent of women respondents. The NDA government also saw stronger support from older respondents (52% for 35+ age groups) as against a range of 33 to 36 percent among younger respondents.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi emerged as the best speaker in Parliament with 34.1 percent votes in his favour followed by Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi at 27.2 percent, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at 12.4 percent, the survey findings revealed.

A notable gender divide was visible here too as more men favoured PM Modi (40%) compared to women (28%). The inverse held true for Rahul Gandhi with the percentage of women voters (31%) higher than the number of male respondents (24%) voting in his favour.

The debate in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha last week also saw the Opposition parties trying to corner the Centre on the question of US President Donald Trump's claim of mediating the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

As per the survey findings, 44.5 percent of the respondents disagreed with Trump's assertions of brokering truce as compared to 39.3 percent who said they believed the US President's claims. While the younger population (45% of 18-24-year-olds) was more likely to believe Trump's mediation claim, the older demographic was more skeptical with 58 percent of the respondents aged above 55 years disagreeing with the claims.

An overall debate quality assessment showed that a majority viewed it as politically motivated instead of a serious discussion on a genuine matter of national security. As per the findings of the survey, 47.7 percent of the respondents rated the debate on Operation Sindoor as 'average, more of politics', only 25.5 percent found it 'good, satisfactory' while 15.2 percent called it 'poor, disappointing'.