Congress on Wednesday latched on to Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar’s purported remarks that the Army had carried out “target specific, limited-calibre, counter-terrorist operations” across loC in the past too, to “expose” the BJP and Modi Government’s “lie” on the recent surgical strikes. Jaishankar comments assume significance in the context of remarks by Parrikar last week rejecting Congress’ claims that surgical strikes were undertaken during the UPA Government too.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singvhi said that information given by Jaishankar to the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs appears to contradict Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s claim. Sources said Jaishankar made the remarks when specifically asked by MPs whether surgical strikes have been carried out in the past.
Parrikar had asserted that it was the first time that surgical strikes had taken place in the aftermath of the Uri terror attack and what was undertaken previously were operations locally executed by commanders without involving the Government.
“Does it look good for the Defence Minister of the country to be directly contradicted by the Foreign SecretaryIJ Which one of them is prevaricatingIJ Foreign Secretary has spoken measured terms and in precise terms,” Singhvi said at AICC briefing.
He insisted that this kind of prevaricating only to score brownie points is unfortunate because it paints the nation in a bad light. “Why is this attempt by the Government to be non-magnanimousIJ” Singhvi preceded it by saying that “under the UPA, strategy required silence. We aren’t blaming Modi Government for not having silence, but acknowledge past actions.”
Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, he said “while the Prime Minister joins us in saying this issue shouldn’t be politicised, its happening under his nose by his colleagues.” Singhvi noted that the Prime Minister has not spoken a word about posters dotting poll-bound Uttar Pradesh politicising the strikes.
“Congress has been behind the nation and the Army in the initiative which has been colloquially called the surgical strike. We have never questioned the surgical strike. We have said that it should not be politicised”, he said. AICC spokesman Randeep Surjewala hoped that Jaishanker would not get “axed” like his predecessor Sujatha Singh for “speaking the truth” and “expose BJP’s deception”.
“Modi Govt’s rhetoric, bravado and machismo’s exposed by FS, Jaishankar. Amit Shah’s and Parrikar’s lies exposed. Hope FS Jaishankar won’t get axed like Sujatha Singh for speaking the truth qua valour of Armed Forces and exposing BJP’s deception,” Surjewala tweeted.
His tweets came a day after a Parliamentary panel was told that the Army had carried out “target specific, limited- calibre, counter-terrorist operations” across the loC in the past too, but this is for the first time the government has gone public about it.