New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday asked the government to keep strategic interests in mind instead of brazenly exploiting the army's valour for politics, as the surgical strike inside Pakistan returned to dominate television headlines.
A video of the September 2016 covert cross-border operation had appeared on some television channels on Wednesday, prompting the Opposition party to accuse the government of intentionally leaking it to divert attention from its failure to deliver on lofty promises.
It suspected a sinister design to whip up passions to suppress genuine concerns about the economy and governance.
"Our armed forces have always made every Indian proud by their indomitable courage, fortitude and spirit of sacrifice," party communications chief Randeep Surjewala said, recalling previous surgical strikes that had not been milked for political gain.
"Conducting strategic surgical strikes with utmost precision and effective penetration at different times in the last two decades has been characteristic of the grit and determination of our forces."
Surjewala went on to list surgical strikes conducted since the year 2000, to make the point that the 2016 operation under the Narendra Modi government was not the first.
"We are proud that our forces have conducted surgical strikes, particularly post the year 2000, on January 21, 2000 (Nadala enclave, across the Neelam river); September 18, 2003 (Baroh sector, Poonch); June 19, 2008 (Bhattal sector, Poonch); August 30-September 1, 2011 (Sharda sector, across the Neelam river valley in Kel); January 6, 2013 (Sawan Patra check post); July 27-28, 2013 (Nazapir sector); August 6, 2013 (Neelam valley); January 14, 2014, and September 28-29, 2016."
Surjewala pointed out that after the 2016 operation, events were organised to honour then defence minister Manohar Parrikar and that posters had appeared all over giving the entire credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which the BJP swept.
"Let the ruling dispensation remember that the blood and sacrifice of our brave soldiers cannot become a political vote-garnering tool for the BJP. The surgical strike was shamelessly politicised by the BJP," he said.
"None less than the BJP president, Amit Shah, dishonoured the 70-year-long history of bravery and sacrifice of our armed forces by making a disgraceful statement on October 7, 2016, at a press conference in Delhi, that the 'Indian Army had crossed the LoC for the first time in 68 years', besides publicly declaring that the BJP would encash the surgical strike in the entire country," Surjewala added.
The Congress said that while the Modi government sought credit for the surgical strike, it had failed on the national security front; with 146 soldiers killed, more than 1,600 ceasefire violations by Pakistan and 79 terrorist attacks since September 2016.
In the aftermath of the surgical strike in 2016, the Congress had been rattled by the propaganda that it had opposed or suspected the veracity of the attack on terror launch pads across the border.
Along with BJP leaders, many TV channels had started asking for an apology from the Opposition. The Congress then felt compelled to release an old statement of Sonia Gandhi commending the army's valour and backing the government's decision to respond aggressively to Pakistan.
The Congress had not questioned the operation by the security forces but had flayed the government's attempt to use it for bolstering the BJP's prospects in elections.
