However, two former Army Chief of Staffs (COAS) denied any knowledge of such surgical strikes under Congress. General Ved Malik, who was COAS during the Kargil War, and General VK Singh, who’s now a union minister and BJP member both denied any such incidents.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising suspicion over the claims of the surgical strike during UPA regime and asserted that doing so is an insult to the Army.
Address a media briefing in Delhi, Gandhi said: "The Army, Air Force or Navy is not personal properties of Narendra Modi ji like he thinks. When he says that surgical strikes during UPA were done in video games then he is not insulting Congress, but the Army. These air strikes were done by the Army and we do not politicize the Army. The Prime Minister should not insult the Army."
On Thursday, Congress party claimed that six surgical strikes were conducted during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's regime from 2004 to 2014.
Gandhi scion also stated that his party will keep on using the slogan of 'Chowkidar Chor hai.' He said: "The process (Rafale case) is going on in Supreme Court and I made a comment attributed to SC so I apologized. I did not apologize to BJP or Modi ji. 'Chowkidar Chor hai' will remain our slogan."Congress has a habit of lying. Will you please let me know which ‘So called Surgical Strike’ are you attributing to my tenure as COAS. Am sure you must have hired some Coupta to invent another story .
However, two former Army Chief of Staffs (COAS) denied any knowledge of such surgical strikes under Congress. General Ved Malik, who was COAS during the Kargil War, and General VK Singh, who’s now a union minister and BJP member both denied any such incidents.
With inputs from agencies
1. What former COAS said
)
General Malik wrote: “Cannot think of any such incidents where political leadership asked armed forces to carry out such a strike or gave assent to such plans by armed forces except one in 1984: to pre-empt Pakistan Army and occupy Soltoro range in Siachen Sector.”
Meanwhile, Gen VK Singh added: “Congress has a habit of lying. Will you please let me know which ‘So called Surgical Strike’ are you attributing to my tenure as COAS. Am sure you must have hired some Coupta to invent another story.”
Congress has a habit of lying. Will you please let me know which ‘So called Surgical Strike’ are you attributing to my tenure as COAS. Am sure you must have hired some Coupta to invent another story .
— Chowkidar Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) May 4, 2019
Cannot think of any such incidents where political leadership asked armed forces to carry out such a strike or gave assent to such plans by armed forces except one in 1984: to pre-empt Pakistan Army and occupy Soltoro range in Siachen Sector.
— Vedmalik (@Vedmalik1) May 3, 2019
2. Rahul takes on BJP's 'nationalism'
)
Taking the BJP's nationalism narrative in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls head-on, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the Indian Army is not Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "personal property" and it should not be politicised as he also slammed the government on tackling terror, citing JeM chief Masood Azhar's release during the NDA rule.
Asserting that terrorism is a huge issue, Gandhi alleged that the BJP compromises on it, adding that the Congress will deal with it "more sternly" than Modi because it works with a strategy, rather than "events".
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, he also hit out at the prime minister over his remarks that the Congress conducted surgical strikes only "on paper" and the leaders of the opposition party thought those were akin to video games.
3. Modi's comments insult to Army
)
Gandhi said Modi's comments were not an insult to the Congress, but to the Army.
Asked about the prime minister invoking Masood Azhar's designation as a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) at a poll rally soon after the decision was announced, the Congress president said the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief is a terrorist and the strictest action should be taken against him.
"Who had sent him there? He is being designated, but who sent him there in the first place? How did he reach Pakistan? Has the Congress party sent him to Pakistan? Which government had negotiated with terrorism, bowed in front of terrorism, who sent him back?," he asked, alluding to Azhar's release in the Kandahar hijacking case during the NDA rule in 1999.
4. 'Cong didn't send Azhar back'
)
"The Congress did not send him (Azhar) back. The reality is that the BJP compromises (with terrorism). The Congress has never done such a thing. The Congress party has never sent a terrorist to Pakistan and will never do so," Gandhi, who was flanked by senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram, Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma and Randeep Surjewala, said.
Azhar and two other terrorists -- Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh -- were released by the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government in exchange for the passengers held hostage on board Indian Airlines flight IC-814, which was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
5. 'Modi thinks Army is his personal property'
)
Then foreign minister Jaswant Singh had accompanied Azhar in a special aircraft and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, then a top Intelligence Bureau (IB) official, was in Kandahar as part of India's negotiating team when the terrorists were handed over.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of taking credit for the Army's actions and ignoring key issues such as unemployment and agrarian distress, Gandhi said, "Modi thinks the Army, Navy and Air Force are his personal property." Referring to the six surgical strikes the Congress had listed as carried out under the UPA rule, he said those were not conducted by his party, but by the Army.
"When he (Modi) says the Indian Army's surgical strikes were video games, he does not insult the Congress, but the Indian Army.
"The Army had done this (surgical strikes). It is their job. We do not politicise the Army. It is the Indian Army, not a particular person's Army. The prime minister should have that much of respect and not insult the Army," the Congress chief said.
6. 'Army doing fab job for 70 years'
)
He said the Army was doing its job for 70 years and had won every battle.
"It is a terrific record. What does Modi have to do with it as it is the Army's job. Modi should tell the country what is he doing for the youth, what is he going to do for farmers, for women," he said.
Gandhi also said there was a clear-cut feeling after four phases of the Lok Sabha polls that the BJP was losing the electoral battle.
The main issues in the ongoing polls are employment, farmers' problems, prime minister's corruption and attacks on institutions, he said.
"Our internal assessment is clearly telling us that the BJP is losing the election," he added.
Gandhi claimed that there were signs of panic in the BJP's poll campaign.
"I see a scared prime minister, unable to face the onslaught of the opposition and absolutely convinced in his mind that he is trapped. It is a panicky campaign," he said.
