Amid Shashi Tharoor row, Congress claims 6 surgical strikes under UPA; BJP hits back
Amid a major controversy over Shashi Tharoor's statements on surgical strikes, the Congress on Thursday reiterated its claim that six such military operations were carried out during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, moved quickly to debunk what it called a 'lie'.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had invited massive criticism from within his party over his statement that India conducted its first surgical strike in response to a terror attack in 2016.
Senior Congress leader and party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewal, though, backed the 'seasoned and experienced' Tharoor, he also insisted that the leader was wrong about the surgical strikes.
"Congress party only corrected (him) by pointing out that surgical strikes against Pakistan and other dens of terrorists were a regular feature even during the UPA term – to give a befitting reply to terrorists by our armed forces and the Congress governments," Surjewala said.
Sharing a video on X, the Congress wrote, "No Noida. No PR. Only Decisive Actions. 6 Surgical Strikes were carried out under Congress Govt."
The BJP did not hold back, criticising the grand-old party for being "corrupt", even when national security is concerned.
Citing a Right to Information (RTI) query dated April 2018, the BJP wrote, "There were no surgical strikes under UPA as confirmed by the DGMO in response to an RTI query".
"Darpok (fearful) Congress must STOP LYING," the saffron party said in a post on X.
Back in December 2018, the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi had asserted that the Indian Army conducted three surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) when the UPA government was in power, HT reported.
Similar to Randeep Surjewala's claimed list of surgical strikes from June 2018, the Congress has now listed these six military operations carried out under its UPA government. According to the party's X post, strikes were carried out in Poonch's Bhattal sector on June 19, 2008, and in the Sharda Sector across Neelam River Valley in Kel in 2011 between August 31 and September 1.
A strike was reportedly carried out on Sawan Patra Checkpost on January 6, 2013. Between July 27 and 28, 2013, another 'surgical strike' struck the Nazapir sector. Lastly, two more strikes were carried out in Neelam Ghati on August 6, 2013, and January 14, 2014.
In May 2019, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also claimed that his government had conducted "multiple surgical strikes" while in power, but did not believe in using them for "vote gathering".
The army's northern command chief, Lt General Ranbir Singh, at the time, said the September 2016 surgical strike on terrorist launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was the first such operation to be carried out, HT had earlier reported.
Singh had also cited a reply from the directorate general of military operations (DGMO) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The DGMO's reply to the RTI said the army had no data to suggest that any surgical strikes were conducted across the de-facto India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, the Line of Control (LoC), before September 2016.
This was the first time that a senior officer had spoken on record about whether the September 2016 strike was the army's first such targeted operation.
Singh was heading the Directorate of Military Operations (DGMO) when the September 2016 strikes were carried out in response to an attack on an Indian Army's camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri that claimed the lives of 19 soldiers.
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