The biggest blow to Congress’ claim of conducting Surgical Strikes has been dealt by General V.K. Singh, former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), and now a Member of Parliament from the BJP and MoS External Affairs. He accused the Congress party of lying, said there was no surgical strike by India in his tenure and demanded to know which surgical strike exactly they are attributing to his tenure as COAS.
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
Another former COAS, Retired General Bikram Singh, too, had echoed similar sentiments in 2016. It was clear that no such strikes were conducted during his tenure and he did not think such attempts were made earlier as well. General Bikram Singh was COAS from 2012-2014 and succeeded General V.K. Singh.
I don’t think earlier attempt has been made by Indian Army. It must be hearsay: General (R) Bikram Singh #IndiaStrikesPak #TTP pic.twitter.com/XhqOVRkUiu
— India Today (@IndiaToday) September 30, 2016
General Ved Prakash Malik, who was COAS between 1997-2000, too, said that he wasn’t aware of any such strikes either.
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
Therefore, three COAS, two of them who were COAS during the UPA regime, claim that no such surgical strikes were ever carried out by the UPA government. It appears the Congress party was so secretive that they managed to conduct Surgical Strikes without informing the Armed Forces of the country as well.
Moreover, the number of strikes that the UPA government apparently conducted keeps changing with remarkable frequency. We have documented the phenomenon here. Moreover, on the same day that Rajiv Shukla claimed that the Congress party had conducted 6 surgical strikes, Rahul Gandhi in his interview to India Today claimed that Manmohan Singh’s government had conducted 3. And today, in his press conference, the Congress President again fell back to 6.
#LIVE on #May23WithArnab | Rahul Gandhi says ‘Army not PM’s private property’, stands by Congress’ Surgical Strike list and adds ‘Army did the strikes, not the Congress party’. Tune in to watch his news briefing here – https://t.co/Ar5oNWEpM1 pic.twitter.com/2e37UhTlWT
— Republic (@republic) May 4, 2019
It’s quite a spectacle that’s unfolding here. The COAS during the UPA regimes claims that they are not aware of any such surgical strikes. The Congress party claims on the number of surgical strikes vary from 2 to 15. It’s so bewildering that on the same day, one senior Congress leader claims UPA conducted 6 surgical strikes while the Congress President in an interview says it only conducted 3.
Therefore, Congress doesn’t appear to have much clue about the surgical strikes that were conducted, the Armed Forces have no clue about the surgical strikes that were conducted. And yet, the people of this country are expected to believe them when they say that surgical strikes were indeed conducted during the UPA regime. It’s quite a fascinating story indeed.
In fact, an RTI query last year to the DGMO had also revealed that there have been no surgical strikes on Pakistan prior to September 2016.
