The incumbent Goa Chief Minister and the former Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, took a dig at the Congress party for questioning the authenticity of the surgical strike conducted in 2016. He said, “When we did the surgical strike, the opposition parties said that they never happened. I would have taken the Opposition party on the surgical strike. I would have told the Army to take Rahul Gandhi and do the surgical strike.” He further added, “If you want to do a surgical strike, then the most important thing is secrecy. Only four people were knowing about the strike including the prime minister, me, Army chief and the director general of military operations besides Army’s Zone Commander and the Commander in Srinagar (sic).” The then defence minister Manohar Parrikar with his statement has hit out at the opposition leaders, especially the Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who have questioned the authenticity of the surgical strikes.
However, in India, the way opposition functions, even if they were taken along with the army, they would still be questioning the government and the army. The opposition in India is all about opposing the government. No matter how much evidence one provides to them, still they would keep on maintaining their denial mode.
On 29 September, 2016, eleven days after the Uri attack, where 19 Jawans had been martyred by Pakistani terrorists, the Indian army conducted surgical strikes against terrorist launch pads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, Indian Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), said that it had received “very credible and specific information” about “terrorist teams” who were preparing to “carry out infiltration and conduct terrorist strikes inside Jammu and Kashmir and in various metros in other states”. Indian media reported the casualty figures variously from 35 to 50. Congress party and AAP politicized the surgical strikes and tried to undermine the Indian Army. Congress party leader, Sanjay Nirupam went to the extent of calling claims of the strikes as fake. Kejriwal asked for the video proofs of the surgical strikes.
Shameful as it was, they were soon joined by the Congress President Rahul Gandhi who termed the surgical attacks as “khoon ki dalaali”. His stupidity drew flak from the common people as well as the BJP leaders who attacked him on social media and other platforms. Rahul Gandhi forgot that it was the revenge of the Indian Army that had unleashed hell on the Pakistani terrorists. The surgical strikes or something of this magnitude had to be done in retaliation to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks but for the cowardice shown by the Congress led UPA government in centre back in 2008.
The most surprising questions over the surgical strikes came from former Union Minister Arun Shourie. He recently had called the surgical strikes “farzical” or fake.
Now, the videos of surgical strikes are in public domain. It is a tight slap on the faces of all those Pakistani spokesperson masquerading as Indian politicians who questioned the authenticity of the surgical strikes. The video clip and the statement of Manohar Parrikar should shut the mouths of the leaders who questioned the valor of our soldiers and they should also apologize to the Indian Army. There are certain limits to indulging in politics and national security is one such topic where every political party should refrain from playing dirty.