Cong claims on surgical strikes false: Javadekar

BJP leader and Union minister and Prakash Javadekar has said the claims of the Congress on six surgical strikes during the UPA government’s reign are wrong.

Javadekar, addressing mediapersons on Friday, said the Congress had been seeking proof of surgical strikes till now and now they claim to have conducted strikes.

On Thursday, Congress leader Rajiv Shukla had listed the dates between 2008 and 2014 when the strikes were carried out. He had stated that the party and the UPA had not tried to take political advantage of military operations.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh had told the Hindustan Times earlier that there were surgical strikes during the UPA regime.Dr Singh had said the military was free to respond to threats during his tenure and such actions were only for strategic advantage and not to garner political mileage.

In response to Dr Singh’s remarks, the BJP said on Thursday that the Congress’ claim of surgical strikes during its 10-year tenure was ‘fraudulent and farcical,’ alleging that the grand old party was ‘guilty’ of not allowing punitive action against terrorists. BJP leader Arun Jaitley too criticised the Congress, saying its surgical strikes were ‘invisible and unknown.’

“It is a farcical and fraudulent claim. We have the greatest of respect for our armed forces. Our forces were capable of carrying out surgical strikes across the LoC, inside Pakistan, but they were not allowed to do so when the UPA was in power,” BJP national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao had said.

(With inputs from agencies and other sources)