Credit must be given to Army, PM for surgical strike: Defence Minister Parrikar
NEW DELHI : Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today rejected claims that surgical strikes were undertaken during the UPA regime and asserted that a “major” share of credit for the army action last month goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking at “Strengthening India’s Defence Capabilities” event in Mumbai, he said that all the 127 crore people of India, including doubting Thomases, and the army share and deserve credit for the operation as it was done by the armed forces and not by any political party.
At the same time, he said that major share of credit does go to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government for decision-making and planning.
He also made it clear that claims of having carried out such strikes earlier were wrong as such actions were undertaken by border action teams at local level without the knowledge of the government.
Mr. Parrikar said that he has been the Defence Minister for two years and from whatever he has known, there is no surgical strike from previous years. He added that what Congress is quoting are actions taken by border action teams.
The minister made it clear that unlike earlier, this time it was a surgical strike because “decision was taken and conveyed” and the army did the job well. He added that this was an operation which clearly indicates the intent of the government and the nation.
Mr Parrikar said that if the government wanted to take political mileage out of this, then he would have announced it rather than the Director General of Military Operations.
