NEW DELHI: In remarks likely to raise eyebrows in the Congress, Faisal Patel — son of the late party stalwart Ahmed Patel – has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership during Operation Sindoor, the cross-border strike on terror camps in Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.“It can’t be better than who’s running the show… The armed forces have done a great job, and PM Narendra Modi showed great leadership and brought us out of a huge crisis. I am proud of our armed forces. I have a lot of respect for Jaishankarji. How Modiji picks up bureaucrats, makes them leaders and puts them in ministry roles is a very good thing,” Patel told ANI.In an interview to CNN-News18, he called Modi and home minister Amit Shah “great leaders” and declared the country was “in safe hands” – a remark loaded with political irony given Ahmed Patel’s long rivalry with Modi during UPA years, when he was Sonia Gandhi’s most trusted strategist. Though insisting he remains a Congress member, Patel pointed to internal drift in the party.