A day after former Northern Command chief Lt General (retired) DS Hooda said constant hype around the surgical strikes in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) in 2016 was unwarranted, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue and charged that the Prime Minister used the military action for “political capital”.
Responding to a question during the Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh on Friday, Hooda, who was the commander when the surgical strikes were carried out, had said in hindsight, it would have been better had “we done it (surgical strikes) secretly”. He had also said it was natural to have initial euphoria about the success but the constant maintenance of hype around the military operation was unwarranted.
Taking to Twitter, Rahul said: “Spoken like a true soldier General. India is so proud of you. Mr 36 has absolutely no shame in using our military as a personal asset. “He used the surgical strikes for political capital and the Rafale deal to increase Anil Ambani's real capital by 30,000 Cr. #SurgicalStrike (sic).”
On the same issue, Congress leader P Chidambaram said it was heartening that persons who were in key posts in the Government were “shedding their fear and breaking silence” on important policies and decisions.
In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said it was former Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian, who first broke his silence by terming demonetisation a "massive monetary shock".
The former Finance Minister said that after Subramanian, the recently-retired Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said demonetisation had no impact on the use of black money in elections.
Now, it is Hooda, who has "decried the hype over the so-called 'surgical strike' and its politicisation by Government", Chidambaram said, adding, "Glad to see important persons shedding their fear and breaking their silence".
Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala thanked Hooda for "exposing the petty politicisation by PM Modi". "No one can use the valour & sacrifice of our brave soldiers to score cheap political points Modiji is squarely guilty of compromising National Security & Strategic Interests by unwarranted chest thumping!" he wrote on Twitter.
Last month, Subramanian had raised concerns related to note ban. Six months after resigning as CEA, he described demonetisation as a "massive, draconian, monetary shock".
Two days after his retirement, Rawat had said the note ban didn't reduce the misuse of black money in elections but in fact in some states more seizures were reported compared to previous years. The government had banned old `1,000 and `500 notes on November 8, 2016.