After Foreign Secretary’s statement, government must acknowledge past surgical strikes: Congress

NEW DELHI: A day after the Foreign Secretary informed a parliamentary Standing Committee that Indian Army may have indulged in cross-border operations in the past too, the Congress has attacked the Modi government for denying that surgical strikes-like military operations also took place in the past and demanded it now tell the country what Foreign Secretary has stated.

"Does it look good for the Defence Minister of this country ( Manohar Parikkar who had said this was the first cross-border surgical strike) to be directly contradicted by none other than the Foreign Secretary? …Which one of them is prevaricating? The Foreign Secretary has spoken in measured and precise terms", chided AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi .

Targeting Parikkar, he added, “This kind of prevaricating only to score brownie points is unfortunate because it paints the nation in a bad light”.

He demanded the Modi government now magnanimously acknowledge what Congress has been saying; that similar Army operations had taken place in the past during the UPA tenure.

"The government shouldn't deny that this (surgical strikes) happened before. While we support the operation, they should be magnanimous enough to say that this is not the first time that this country has conducted these strikes…The Foreign Secretary in precise terms has said that surgical strikes have happened before. We have no reason to not believe his precise assertions", Singhvi said.

Maintaining the Congress had never doubted the September 28-29 surgical strikes, he also questioned the silence of the Prime Minister on BJP's continued bid to “politcise” the defence force's action.

"While the Prime Minister joins us in saying this issue shouldn't be politicised, it's happening under his nose by his colleagues..Why has not the Prime Minister mentioned even once about the posters dotting Uttar Pradesh, which politicise these strikes," Singhvi asked.