A fierce political clash has erupted after Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's recent remarks on India's surgical strikes triggered a wave of reactions across party lines. Tharoor, currently leading a multi-party delegation abroad, stated that India crossed the Line of Control (LoC) for the first time in 2016 to conduct a surgical strike on terrorist infrastructure—a comment that was quickly challenged, including by within his own party.
Tharoor’s statement, made during a speech in Phaanama, suggested that the September 2016 strike in response to the deadly Uri attack was unprecedented. "For the first time, India crossed the LoC to strike a terror launch pad — something even the Kargil War had not prompted," he said.
While the Congress was swift to distance itself from his comments, it also used the opportunity to reiterate its long-standing claim that the UPA government had authorised similar cross-border military operations during its tenure. Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala defended Tharoor's credibility but said he was factually mistaken on this issue. “Surgical strikes were not new in 2016. Our forces have carried out such operations multiple times under the UPA too,” Surjewala stated.
The Congress posted a list of six alleged surgical strikes conducted between 2008 and 2014, including operations in Poonch, Kel, and Neelam Ghati, emphasising the party’s preference for decisive action over publicity. A video shared on X was accompanied by the caption, “No Noise. No PR. Only Decisive Actions.”
Echoing Randeep Surjewala's 2018 claims, the Congress has once again listed six surgical strikes allegedly conducted during the UPA era. As per the party's recent post on X, the operations included a strike in Poonch's Bhattal sector on June 19, 2008, and another in the Sharda sector across the Neelam River Valley in Kel between August 31 and September 1, 2011.
The BJP, however, was quick to counter these claims. Amit Malviya, head of the BJP IT cell, shared a Right to Information (RTI) response from 2018, which stated that no record of surgical strikes before September 2016 existed according to the Directorate General of Military Operations (DGMO).
“The Congress is lying. The DGMO has officially confirmed that no such operations took place before 2016,” Malviya posted, accusing the opposition party of politicising national security.
Adding fuel to the fire, Lt. General Ranbir Singh, who led the DGMO during the 2016 strikes, had earlier confirmed that the operation in response to the Uri attack was the Indian Army's first publicly acknowledged cross-LoC surgical strike.
As both parties lock horns over military history, the controversy underscores how deeply intertwined national security and political narratives have become in India’s electoral discourse.
