According to various media houses, Lt. General Deependra Singh Hooda (retd.), who was the Northern Army Commander at the time of surgical strikes, will be spearheading a panel to draft Congress’ vision of national security. In their reports, the media implied that the Lt. General had joined the Grand Old Party, since he was heading one of its panels. However, when the Lt. General was asked about this development, he rejected all such rumors and said, “I have not joined the Congress party”.
Lt Gen DS Hooda (retd) to ANI on whether he had joined Congress party which has asked him to prepare a report on national security: I have not joined the Congress party. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/K3IId5HvDt
— ANI (@ANI) February 22, 2019
Congress Party was on cloud nine after they signed up the surgical strike hero for this job. Congress friendly media houses then started writing misleading headlines to imply the Lt General has joined the Congress party. Moreover they didn’t even bother to reach out to DS Hooda before making such assessments.
Earlier, in a press release issued by K C Venugopal, General Secretary AICC, it was said that Lt Gen DS Hooda will lead the task force on National Security set up by the Congress President Rahul Gandhi. However, it was nowhere mentioned that the surgical strike hero is set to join the Congress party.
When DS Hooda was asked about this development, the Lt General said that the formation of task force is a result of long term planning and it has nothing to do with Uri surgical strikes or the recent attack in Pulwama. The task force is aimed at creating a public debate around Indian strategic requirements. He went on to add that the announcement of the task force was actually deferred in light of the Pulwama terror strike. “They (the Congress) have been in talks for a while and the decision to create the task force was taken prior to recent developments. A team will be selected over the next few days and will work on a report that will be made public for comments and discussion,” Lt Gen Hooda told Economic Times.
Moreover, in the wake of the Lok Sabha election, Congress Party is approaching experts from different fields ranging from job generation, farm crisis, economy management, security, and others. DS Hooda further clarified that this development is nothing but a part of those exercises.
It is a bit surprising that the party who has always backed the so-called liberals like ‘Tukde-Tukde gang’ is suddenly worried about national security. Not to forget that Congress is the same party who peddled propaganda in connection to the despicable attacks in Pulwama. The Congress friendly media and even some in the party repeatedly cast doubts on the surgical strikes and asked for proof. For the Congress party, these attacks are nothing but another opportunity to peddle their vicious propaganda. Setting new benchmarks for their hypocrisy, Congress earlier politicized the Pulwama attacks, as they attempted to whitewash the suicide bomber, Adil Ahmed Dar as ‘a homegrown terrorist’; while attacking the BJP led NDA government for the Pulwama attacks.