Cong, BJP fight it out over surgical strikes’ video clips
The release of purported video clips of the Army's 2016 surgical strikes created a political furore on Thursday with the Congress accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP of politicising the surgical strike carried out on Pakistan in 2016, saying there have been many successful surgical strikes but never a prime minister resorted to ‘chest-thumping’ instead of admiring the valour of the soldiers.
The BJP said that the Congress was behaving more like a fringe player than a mainstream party by "questioning" the armed forces and such statements by it will only make terrorists happy in Pakistan.
Several TV channels on Wednesday showed video clips reportedly of the surgical strikes which were carried out on terror launch pads across the border in September 2016. The defence ministry or the Army has not offered any comment on the footage.
Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala asked: “Is Modi government using our soldiers as ‘political fodder’ and using their sacrifice to gain votes?”
In a separate press conference earlier in the day, he said for one whole year, the Modi government has stopped the supply of ration to Armed Forces officers illegally without any explanation.
“Eager to claim credit for surgical strikes, BJP President @AmitShah dishonoured 70 year long history of bravery and sacrifice of our Armed Forces by making a disgraceful statement on Oct 7, 2016 that Indian Army had crossed the LoC for the first time in 68 years,” Surjewala said. He also lambasted the TV media wanting answer from the Congress leaders as to whether they support the surgical strike or not. “Post Surgical Strike of Sept 2016 against terrorists in Pakistan, then Congress President Sonia Gandhi and then Congress VP Rahul Gandhi had unequivocally supported the armed forces and the Government,” he said.
In reply to a question, Surjewala said: "The valour and bravery of our armed forces should not be, cannot be and never be gauged in terms of partisan politics of political party. Anyone who seeks to do so is dishonouring the valour and bravery, the innate competitiveness and competence of our soldiers who lay down their lives every day so that all fellow Indians can breathe in a free India."
Ravi Shankar Prasad, fielded by the BJP to counter the opposition charge, accused the Congress of repeatedly making statements that questioned the commitment and bravery of the armed forces, and lowering their morale.
Such comments make it clear that the Congress is no longer a mainstream party but a fringe player in the national politics, he said, adding it does not look like the same party which ruled the country for over 60 years.
Terrorists and their patrons in Pakistan would be the happiest with the Congress' stand, which has given them a "campaign handle" against India, Prasad said.
The Congress' only aim seems to be directed at breaking the morale of the armed forces, he said and asked it to answer if it considers the video real or not and approves of the surgical strikes or not.
Prasad said that the opposition party has become so desperate with its repeated losses in elections that it has been repeatedly questioning the commitment and courage of the armed forces.
If the BJP wanted to draw political mileage, then a video purportedly showing the Army's operation in PoK would have been released during polls in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat or Karnataka, he said.
Surjewala said the surgical strikes and military operations are carried out without chest thumping as done by Prime Minister Modi. There were many strikes and operations during the tenure of then prime ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh but neither attempted to take credit with chest thumping to show bogus nationalism.
He said the Congress is proud that the Indian Army had successfully conducted surgical strikes many times in the last two decades, especially after 2000.