PM Modi has no shame in using our military as personal asset: Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hailed Lieutenant General (retd) DS Hooda over his comments on surgical strike saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "absolutely no shame" in using Indian military forces as a personal asset.

Lt Gen (retd) Hooda on Friday took the stand that the hype associated with the surgical strike was not needed.

Referring to Prime Minister Modi as 'Mr 36', Rahul tweeted: "Spoken like a true soldier General. India is so proud of you. Mr 36 has absolutely no shame in using our military as a personal asset. He used the surgical strikes for political capital and the Rafale deal to increase Anil Ambani's real capital by 30,000 crore."

Resonating similar sentiments, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge told ANI: "People should talk about such things only after understanding it completely. It's not like our forces saved the border areas only after you came into power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also talks about surgical strikes during all his political rallies. He says that we conducted the surgical strike, but Congress does not like it. You use it to attack the Opposition."

He added, "We have been saying in the past also. You should not take credit for the surgical strike, the credit should go to our soldiers."

It was on September 18, 2016 when four Pakistani terrorists attacked the Indian Army at Uri in the state, killing 19 soldiers. Avenging the attack, on September 29, 2016, the Indian Army conducted a surgical strike across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and destroyed terrorist launch pads completely, killing many terrorists.

Speaking to ANI, Lt Gen (retd) Hooda said, "I do think there was too much hype over it. The military operation was important and we had to do it. Now how much should it have been politicised, whether it is right or wrong is something that should be asked to politicians.