New Delhi: In the midst of significant controversy surrounding Shashi Tharoor’s remarks on surgical strikes, the Congress party reaffirmed on Thursday its assertion that six such military operations were executed during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Conversely, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swiftly sought to refute what it termed a “falsehood”.
Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor faced considerable backlash from within his own party for his assertion that India conducted its inaugural surgical strike in response to a terrorist attack in 2016.
While senior Congress figure and party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala supported the “seasoned and experienced” Tharoor, he also emphasized that the leader was mistaken regarding the surgical strikes.
“The Congress party merely corrected him by highlighting that surgical strikes against Pakistan and other terrorist strongholds were a consistent practice even during the UPA administration – to provide a fitting response to terrorists by our armed forces and the Congress-led governments,” Surjewala stated.
In a video shared on X, the Congress party declared, “No Noida. No PR. Only Decisive Actions. Six Surgical Strikes were conducted under the Congress Government.”
The BJP did not hesitate to criticize the historic party for being “corrupt”, even in matters of national security.
Referring to a Right to Information (RTI) request from April 2018, the BJP asserted, “There were no surgical strikes under UPA as confirmed by the DGMO in response to an RTI inquiry.”
“Darpok (cowardly) Congress must CEASE LYING,” the saffron party remarked in a post on X.
Rahul’s 2018 claims of 3 surgical strike
In December 2018, then Congress president Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Indian Army executed three surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) during the tenure of the UPA government, as reported by HT.
Similar to the list of surgical strikes presented by Randeep Surjewala in June 2018, the Congress party has now detailed six military operations conducted under its UPA administration. According to a post by the party on X, strikes were executed in the Bhattal sector of Poonch on June 19, 2008, and in the Sharda Sector across the Neelam River Valley in Kel between August 31 and September 1, 2011.
A strike was reportedly conducted at the Sawan Patra Checkpost on January 6, 2013. Another ‘surgical strike’ occurred in the Nazapir sector between July 27 and 28, 2013. Finally, two additional strikes took place in Neelam Ghati on August 6, 2013, and January 14, 2014.
‘No data of surgical strike before 2016’
In May 2019, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also asserted that his administration had executed “multiple surgical strikes” while in office, but he did not endorse their use for “vote gathering”.
At that time, the army’s northern command chief, Lt General Ranbir Singh, stated that the September 2016 surgical strike on terrorist launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was the first such operation conducted.
Singh also referenced a response from the directorate general of military operations (DGMO) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The DGMO’s response to the RTI indicated that the army had no records to suggest that any surgical strikes were performed across the de-facto India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, specifically the Line of Control (LoC), prior to September 2016.
This marked the first occasion a senior officer publicly addressed whether the September 2016 strike was the army’s initial targeted operation.
