Congress, BJP in war of words over army's 2011 'Operation Ginger'

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Sunday indulged in a war of words after it emerged that the Indian Army conducted a deadly surgical strike on Pakistan's military outposts in 2011 as well.

Codenamed 'Operation Ginger', the strike is said to be the deadliest cross-border operation in which at least eight Pakistani soldiers were killed and several others fatally injured by Indian commandos.

Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha said: "It is an insult to the army and the defence establishment to say that such surgical strikes (September 29) never happened before. It is only that the then Manmohan Singh government never publicised such strikes because it was not consistent with our policy."

He said it was the responsibility of the media, the Congress and everyone else to expose the "brazen lies propagated by the ruling party (BJP) for political advantage".

On the other hand, the BJP said no covert military operation of the magnitude of the September 29 strikes had been done before.

"The surgical strike was done by the army. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi provided the leadership and comfort to the army to conduct a strike of this magnitude," BJP spokesman Syed Zafar Islam said.

He said the Congress was feeling insecure due to the rising popularity of the Modi government.

--IANS

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