After blaming the BJP for ‘chest thumping’ over the surgical strikes conducted by the security forces, Congress senior leaders have come out claiming that 6 surgical strikes had been conducted during Congress era.
In an interview given to Hindustan times, Ex PM Manmohan Singh had said, “Let me remind you that our armed forces were always given a free hand to operationally respond to every threat. Multiple surgical strikes took place during our tenure too. For us, military operations were meant for strategic deterrence and giving a befitting reply to anti-India forces than to be used for vote garnering exercises. In the past 70 years, a government in power never had to hide behind the valour of our armed forces. Such attempts to politicize our forces are shameful and unacceptable.”
Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla, going a few steps ahead, has even given the dates on which these ‘strikes’ were conducted . Speaking at a press conference, Shukla said six surgical strikes were conducted when the Congress-led UPA was in power.
Listing out the strikes Rajeev Shukla claimed that the first ‘strike’ was conducted on June 19, 2008 in Bhattal Sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch, second on Aug 30-September 1, 2011 in Sharda Sector across Neelam River Valley in Kel,third on January 6, 2013 at Sawan Patra Checkpost, Fourth on July 27-28, 2013 at Nazapir Sector, fifth on August 6, 2013 at Neelam Valley and sixth surgical strike on January 14, 2014.
Earlier Former DGMO Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia in an interview given to NDTV had made comments about the ‘strikes conducted’ during the UPA era he said, “Earlier strikes, they were not even strikes, they were cross-border operations done at the local level,”.
Commenting on the surgical strikes that took place in 2016 and congress’ attempts to question the security forces over them he added: “In fact, these (surgical strikes) have given us the returns that we wanted and it had different ramifications — that is why there is so much political hullabaloo around it. I don’t think we should question the Army, I don’t think it is right. The DGMO of the Indian Army and the Army chief should not be questioned on it,”.
Further highlighting the importance of the Surgical Strikes Conducted in 2016 he said, “I am a soldier and I belong to the Indian Army, which is totally apolitical — dedicated, committed and professional. Now, let us put the surgical strikes in the correct contextual framework. These surgical strikes are in a different domain, they are a defining moment, where all elements of national power, that is the diplomatic, informational, military, economic, political, cultural — have synergized, and for the first time, India has given a befitting response to terrorist operations in the counter-terror domain.”
However questions over the timings of these claims made by the Ex PM sure highlights the hypocritical mindset of congress’ top brass. Congress which has been targeting PM Modi over Balakot Strikes and has even gone to the lengths of questioning the security forces, has itself in a blatant attempt tried to garner political steam from these claims. These general elections have been seeing desperate attempts from the congress to save political ground from the BJP, and these meek attempts just adds to the list.
