New Delhi: With controversies brewing up over Shashi Tharoor’s recent statements on surgical strikes, The Congress has reiterated its claim that six surgical strikes were carried out when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quickly debunked it as a “lie”.
Notably, Tharoor faced a huge criticism within his party over his comments that India conducted its first surgical strike in 2016 in response to a terror attack. His party colleague Randeep Singh Surjewal, though, backed him, the Congress general secretary insisted the Thiruvananthapuram MP was wrong about the surgical strikes.
What Surjewala said
“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 was quoted as saying in the Hindustan Times.
Sharing a video on X, the Congress wrote, “No Noida. No PR. Only Decisive Actions. 6 Surgical Strikes were carried out under the Congress Govt.” The BJP, however, criticised the Congress for being “corrupt”, even in the matter of national security. Citing a query filed on Right to Information (RTI) 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 party wrote in a post on X.
Notably, in 2018, when Rahul Gandhi was the Congress President in 2018, he also claimed that the Indian Army conducted three surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) when the UPA government was in power.
