Surgical strike 2016 Balakot air strike 2019
This evening (May 5, 2019), on a TV channel, 4 former army officers rubbished Congress’ claim of ‘surgical strikes’ during the UPA rule. They said that the earlier actions were small-scale ‘cross-border actions’ taken by local commanders without permission of their seniors and information to them after the actions. Such actions had no political implications while ‘surgical strikes’ are major military operations taken only after government permission.
The retired Armed Forces officers explained that what the Modi government did in 2016 and 2019 were major actions by the Indian Armed Forces with the permission of the central government and resulted in heavy casualties inside POK in 2016 and inside Pakistan in 2019. They said such actions have been taken only thrice after the Second World War. Israel did it in Uganda during Idi Amin’s dictatorship and the US did in Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden. They said, had surgical strikes of 2016 or 2019 failed, the Modi government would have fallen.
They said, never before Modi had any government given free hand to the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces were feeling helpless and frustrated when terrorists attacked the Parliament or when terrorists attacked Mumbai in 2008 because they were not allowed to retaliate. The Armed Forces’ morale had never been so high as today, the added. Another important thing with a said that had the Modi government publicly paraded the jawans and officers of the Armed Forces who carried out operations in 2016 or 2019 to take credit, that would have been politicisation of the Armed Forces; referring to the bravery of the forces in 2016 or 2018 does not amount to politicisation.
Devendra Narain
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