New Delhi: After praising the Army for surgical strikes across the Line of Control and backing the government over the dismantling of launchpads, some in the Congress have now tacitly started asking questions.
The first salvo was fired by Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, who said “every Indian wants surgical strikes against Pakistan, but not a fake one just to extract political benefit”.
The AAP had on Monday adopted a similar line. While “saluting” Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the attack, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had asked the government to produce evidence to “stop the propaganda being carried out by Pakistan that there had been no surgical strike”.
The Congress Party was, however, quick to distance itself from Mr Nirupam’s comments, with its chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala saying: “We disassociate from his statements and we have taken serious note.” Interestingly, Mr Surjewala also said “the government should call the bluff of Pakistan, and release all evidence, information at the disposal of the Indian state”.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh had also urged the government to release “evidence (on) the strike to set the record straight, and to call (Pakistan’s) bluff”.
The Congress president and vice-president had earlier unequivocally supported the government and the Indian armed forces over the surgical strikes.
Now the Congress has gone on the offensive, asking the government not to politicise the sacrifice and bravery of Indian soldiers for narrow political gains. It also claimed that when the UPA was in power, at least three such surgical strikes were conducted, but political capital was not drawn from it.
The Congress is now in the middle of a high-octane campaign in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, which go to the polls next year. The main target in that campaign is the Pakistan policy of the BJP-led Central government. The Congress doesn’t want to lose out on talking points, hence it has now put on record that these surgical strikes across the border had not happened for the first time.
Not to take such innuendoes lying down, the BJP hit back on Tuesday, asking Congress president Sonia Gandhi if she would endorse Mr Nirupam’s statement.
Senior Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also targeted top Congress leader P. Chidambaram for his reported comments on the surgical strike, saying he was speaking the same language as Mr Kejriwal. “Is he also joining the bandwagon of raising doubts over the capacity of our soldiers,” he asked.
Mr Prasad urged the Congress president to clarify if Mr Chidambaram’s views reflected the party’s opinion, and if it didn’t she should restrain such leaders. BJP spokesman G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said that the AAP’s and Congress’ “sleeper cells” had been activated and were speaking the language of Pakistan.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal later rejected the BJP’s charge, accusing the ruling party of “playing politics” over the issue and wondered why it was “scared”.
