The Congress on Friday released a film alleging operations against Pakistan during the previous UPA rule at the Centre, which intensified the dispute around the opposition’s accusations of surgical strikes amid national support for the military forces during Operation Sindoor.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress engaged in a verbal sparring match after Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who was leading an all-party delegation to the US, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and Guyana, said a day ago that “for the first time, India breached the Line of Control to conduct a surgical strike.”
The Congress posted the video to the social media site X with the caption, “No Noise”. No publicity. Only Decisive Actions. The Indian government carried out six surgical strikes.
The BJP quickly retaliated, sharing several reports, including one from The Hindu (HT) that featured Rahul Gandhi stating, “We did three surgical strikes.” Even when it comes to national security statistics, Congress is often accused of being dishonest. However, in response to an April 2018 RTI inquiry, the DGMO acknowledged that there were no surgical strikes under the UPA. The BJP declared, “The Darpok Congress must stop lying.”
Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala emphasised that the UPA had carried out six surgical strikes in a statement to the media on Thursday. He stated, “I even did a press conference on it when I was in charge of communications,” suggesting that the BJP did not dispute the Congress’s allegations of a surgical strike.
Congress claims that the first surgical strike under their administration took place in Poonch’s Bhattal Sector on June 19, 2008. Beginning on August 30, the second strike was conducted in the Sharda sector. The fourth one was held on July 27–28, 2013, and the third one was held on January 6, 2013. The sixth surgical strike was conducted at Neelam Ghati on January 14, 2014, and the fifth was carried out in August 2013.
Even the late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mentioned surgical strikes, Surjewala continued.
“After a long and successful day in Panama, I have to wind up at midnight here with departure for Bogota, Colombia, in six hours, so I don’t have time for this — but anyway: for those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC: in the past,” Tharoor responded to his detractors on Thursday. (1) I made it clear and explicit that I was only talking about retaliation for terrorist attacks and not about past wars; (2) I mentioned several attacks that have occurred in the last few years alone, during which time prior Indian responses were both limited and restrained by our responsible respect for the LoC and the IB. However, trolls and critics are free to misrepresent my opinions and statements as they see fit, as is customary. I have more important things to do. On X, he said, “Goodnight.”
A day after Congress leader Udit Raj accused Tharoor of being “dishonest” and disparaging the party’s “golden history”, Tharoor responded. Raj said he would advise Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appoint Tharoor as India’s foreign minister or a “super-spokesperson of the BJP”.
Questioning the Congress’s position, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju posed the following query: “What does the Congress party want & how much do they genuinely care for the country? Should Indian members of Parliament travel abroad and criticise India and its prime minister? Political desperation has a limit! At least during critical times, we Indians need to speak with one voice!
In contrast, Surjewala made an effort to downplay the entire incident. “Tharoor is a seasoned and experienced leader of the Congress and is very much part of the Congress family,” he said, though insisting that Tharoor was wrong about the surgical strikes.
“The 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. The communications department (under Surjewala’s leadership) has already described the incidents. Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh himself has spoken about them; Tharoor himself, in his book, has spoken about them, and Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera have only put the record straight. “It is not a question of animosity and uncertainty,” Surjewala continued.