BJP, Cong spar over surgical op

Even as the Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of leveraging the 2016 surgical strikes across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir as “political fodder” to garner votes, the BJP said that by raising such questions the opposition party is breaking the spirit of the armed forces and strengthening the morale of the terrorists.

The Congress listed similar multiple strikes carried out over last two decades to assert that such action was not the first of its kind though they were not “politicised” earlier.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala’s comments came a day after the footage of Indian Army’s surgical strikes in September 2016 was released.

Talking to reporters here, Surjewala said BJP president Amit Shah had “dishonoured” the 70-year-long history of bravery and sacrifice of the armed forces by making a “disgraceful statement” on October 7, 2016 that “Indian Army had crossed the LoC for the first time in 68 years”.

Surjewala said that conducting strategic surgical strikes “with utmost precision and effective penetration” at different times in last two decades has been characteristic of the grit

NEWDELHI:

and determination of the Indian Armed Forces. He listed multiple “surgical strikes” prior to those conducted in September 2016 after the Narendra Modi government assumed office.

Hitting out at the Congress, the BJP said that the Congress should rise above politics and not demoralise the Army.