Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday targeted the Congress a day after the party claimed that as many as six surgical strikes had been carried out during the UPA regime.
Speaking at an election rally in Sikar, Rajasthan, the PM said that Congress first mocked the surgical strikes carried out by his government but when they saw that the people are with Modi they started claiming that they too carried out similar strikes.
“First they mocked at it then they rejected it but when they saw that people are standing with Modi, they adopted a third strategy – ‘me too’ on surgical strikes,” the PM said referring to the 2016 surgical strike.
“What kind of strikes were they about which neither the terrorists nor those who attacked terrorists, neither those in Pakistan nor anyone in India came to know? Did you come across the word ‘strike’ anywhere in the media during the remote-control government?” the PM said at the massive gathering of BJP supporters in this part of the state.
“Only Congress can do surgical strikes on paper while sitting in AC rooms. First they claimed to have conducted 3 strikes. Yesterday they said they carried out six strikes. In a few days they will say that they carried out a strike daily,” the PM said.
On Thursday, the Congress claimed to have carried out six surgical strikes between 2008 and 2014.
The party also revealed the dates and places of the surgical strikes undertaken during the Congress-led UPA rule.
The first surgical strike, according to Congress leader Rajiv Shukla, was carried out just months before the 26 November 2008 Mumbai terror attack. On 19 June 2008, the UPA government apparently gave the go ahead to a surgical strike in Bhattal Sector, Poonch.
The sixth, and the last, strike under the UPA government was launched on 14 January 2014, the Congress said, referring to the then Army Chief General Bikram Singh’s statement qua Surgical Strike on 23 December 2013.
The Congress had earlier, too, claimed to have carried out surgical strikes. In June 2018, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala had given out the same dates and places of surgical strikes at a press conference held after the release of a video of the 2016 surgical strikes.
Read More: Congress says six surgical strikes carried out during UPA tenure
In an interview to The Hindustan Times, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated that “multiple surgical strikes took place” during the UPA reign and that “forces received a free hand to respond to external threats”.
He added that unlike the NDA government, military operations during UPA were “meant for strategic deterrence and giving a befitting reply to anti-India forces than to be used for vote garnering exercises”.