Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday took a dig at the Congress over its claims of surgical strikes during the UPA regime, and said the numbers claimed may go up during elections.
At an event in Mumbai, Parrikar said, "All the claims that are coming, are coming now. They were never made when they (surgical strikes) were supposed to have taken place."
Some of them may be true, some of them may be exaggerated. The number may increase to two-three dozen during elections... the old cases.
The Congress has said surgical strikes were conducted thrice during the UPA rule, but their government did not publicise those in the interest of national security.
What they are probably quoting (as surgical strikes) are action taken by border action teams, Parrikar said.
‘Indians Must Share Pride, Take Credit’
Parrikar added that the Indian Army, along with 127 crore Indians, must share the “pride” and “credit” of the surgical strike operations.
PM Modi had “tried his best to give opportunity to the neighbour (Pakistan) to have good relations” and the surgical strikes was “telling our adversaries very firmly that India will not tolerate this,” he said.
BJP Appropriating Credit for Political Gains: Opposition
Not taking too kindly to Parrikar’s comments, opposition parties have alleged that the government is politicising the surgical strikes for their own gain ahead of the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh called the Defence Minister’s comments shameful, and even went to the extent of calling him a “small time leader”.
Ashutosh found unlikely support in Congress leader Manish Tiwari who also seemingly echoed the AAP leader’s take on the issue.
Speaking to the CNNNews18, the Congress leader seemed unimpressed with the Defence Minister’s comments. He said:
Parrikar does not deserve to be the Defence Minister of the country.
He added that Parrikar is pandering to the domestic constituencies with his comments on the surgical strikes, an action that does not “behoove the Defence Minister of the country.”
In a series of tweets, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also slammed the Defence Minister for his comments.
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