Does Modi govt conduct surgical strike to counter 'bad day'? Congress alleges so

The Congress on Wednesday made fun of the Narendra Modi government over its "surgical strike" against the Naga insurgent group, NSCN-K.

New Delhi, Sep 28: Back in 2016, Indians learnt a new word, "surgical strike", after the Narendra Modi government decided to conduct surgical strikes against neighbouring Pakistan.

The successful surgical strikes against terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) by the Indian Special Forces on September 29 last year were intended to send a loud and clear message to Pakistan, maintains the Centre.

Since then Prime Minister Modi and his cabinet colleagues have on many occasions, even during election rallies, took credit for conducting the surgical strikes against Pakistan.

The Congress, on its part, said that such attacks were not new and the government of the day should not make "secret" military operations public for electoral gains.

On Wednesday, when one more major military operation, this time against the Naga insurgent group, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), along the India-Myanmar border was conducted by the Indian Army, the Congress once again took a dig at the Modi government.

The Congress sought to blunt the government claims of inflicting "heavy casualties" on the insurgent group NSCN-K, saying similar action has taken place in the past too.

Senior Congress spokesperson P Chidambaram also took a dig at the government, saying whenever they face "a bad day", they do "a surgical strike".

"From time to time, at the border, there is engagement between our paramilitary forces and the rebel groups. It has happened before. It has happened many times when I was home minister. This happened before.

"If you ask (former home minister LK) Advani Ji, he will tell you the same thing. If we ask Sushil Kumar Shinde Ji, he will tell you the same thing. But in this government, whenever they face a bad day, they have to do a surgical strike somewhere," he said.

Taking a dig at the government, Chidambaram said, "Everything in this country is a surgical strike."

On the India-Myanmar border, there are dense forests which have always sanctuaries for rebel groups, who take shelter there. He said it is the media which is reporting it as surgical strike and the government has denied it.

The Army said that it inflicted "heavy casualties" on the insurgent group NSCN-K during "retaliatory" fire along the India-Myanmar border on the Nagaland side in the early hours of Wednesday.

The Army added that Wednesday's small operation was nothing like the Special Forces' cross-border raid to destroy two Naga insurgent camps inside Myanmar in June 2015. It said that a few media reports of casualties suffered by the Army were factually incorrect.

OneIndia News