'No Noise, No PR': Congress Claims 6 Surgical Strikes In UPA Era. BJP Hits Back - 'Must Stop Lying'

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The Congress party has reiterated its claim that six such military operations were carried out across the border during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, responded quickly accusing the Congress party of 'lying.'

The Congres-vs-BJP on social media comes amid tensions between the grand-old party and its leader Shashi Tharoor over India's surgical strikes before and after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi -led government at the centre. Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to foreign countries post Operation Sindoor , has invited criticism over his statement that India conducted its first surgical strike in response to a terror attack in 2016.

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Sharing a video on X, the Congress party wrote,“No Noise. No PR. Only Decisive Actions. 6 Surgical Strikes were carried out under Congress Govt.”

The BJP responded to Congress claims and accused the party of lying.

“Congress is corrupt, even when it comes to numbers related to national security. However, there were no surgical strikes under UPA as confirmed by the DGMO in response to an RTI query dated April 2018. Darpok Congress must STOP LYING,” the BJP said in a post sharing a 2018 story from HT – 'UPA did 3 surgical strikes .'

Three surgical strikes

In December 2018, the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi had asserted that the Indian Army conducted three surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) when the UPA government was in power.

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On May 29, senior Congress leader and party general secretary Randeep Surjewala , though, backed the“seasoned and experienced” Tharoor, he also insisted that the leader was wrong about the surgical strikes.

"Congress party only corrected (him) by pointing out that surgical strikes against Pakistan and other dens of terrorists were a regular feature even during the UPA term – to give a befitting reply to terrorists by our armed forces and the Congress governments," Surjewala said.

Past Surgical Strikes?

Instances of surgical strikes during the Congress-led UPA government have been detailed in the past by the AICC Communication department and by Tharoor himself in his 2018 book "The Paradoxical Prime Minister ", the Surjewala said.

"Even former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh in the past spoke about these surgical strikes. Mr Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera have set the record straight. It should not be matter of any acrimony or doubt," Surjewala said.

Tharoor has come under stringent criticism by several Congress leaders, including media and publicity department head Pawan Khera and party leader Udit Raj, for not mentioning surgical strikes against Pakistan during the UPA government in his presentations abroad.

Udit Raj said he should be made a "super spokesperson of the BJP". The Congress' digs continued on Thursday with Raj saying what the Kerala MP had said was a "lie and a conspiracy to destroy the Congress".

Tharoor's riposte for the jibes

Congress is corrupt, even when it comes to numbers related to national security.

Tharoor, who is heading a multi-party delegation to five countries, including Panama and the US, had a ready riposte for the jibes by some of his party colleagues.

Also Read | Cong uses Tharoor's own book to slam his praise for Modi Govt over Op Sindoor

For 'zealots' fulminating about his supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC, he was "clearly and explicitly" speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said in a post on X from Panama Cit on Thursday morning.

Critics and trolls were welcome to distort his views and words as they see fit but he genuinely has "better things to do", he said.

(With PTI inputs)

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