Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has said that multiple surgical strikes took place during the Congress led UPA tenure too, but “military operations were meant for strategic deterrence… than to be used for vote garnering exercises.” He called the attempts of BJP leaders to politicize the army as “shameful and unacceptable.”
In an interview to Sunetra Choudhury for Hindustan Times, the senior Congress leader said, “Let me remind you that our armed forces were always given a free hand to operationally respond to every threat. Multiple surgical strikes took place during our tenure too.”
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He added said, “For us, military operations were meant for strategic deterrence and giving a befitting reply to anti-India forces than to be used for vote garnering exercises. In the past 70 years, a government in power never had to hide behind the valour of our armed forces. Such attempts to politicize our forces are shameful and unacceptable.”
According to Manmohan Singh the previous UPA government never used nuclear weapons as a political prop. He said, “No Prime Minister has used the issue of our nuclear capabilities for political purposes. I suppose this reflects the political desperation in face of an imminent defeat.”
On the BJP’s actual track record on tackling terrorism Manmohan Singh said, “In the last five years, terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir alone have gone up by 176% ; ceasefire violations at the border by Pakistan have increased by 1,000%. There have been 17 major terror attacks on our security installations. Defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP is lowest in the last 57 years.”
Looking back on the UPA government’s actions following the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, he said “Our response was to isolate and diplomatically expose Pakistan as a terror hub, besides rallying the international community for decisive action against terrorists,” and that India got China to agree to declare Hafiz Saeed a global terrorist within 14 days. “Another mastermind, David Headley was convicted to 35 years of prison during UPA-Congress Govt in 2013.”