‘Congress Must Stop Lying’: BJP Hits Back At ‘Surgical Strikes During UPA’ Claim

Last Updated:May 29, 2025, 22:32 IST

Calling it corrupt when it comes to “numbers related to national security”, the BJP slammed the Congress for making contradictory claims about surgical strikes conducted under UPA

The BJP has said no surgical strikes were conducted under the UPA government. (Image: AFP/File)

In a strong response to claims made by the Congress of surgical strikes under the UPA government, the BJP said the Grand Old Party must stop telling lies when it comes to matters related to national security.

Calling it “corrupt” and “cowardly”, when it comes to national security, the BJP slammed the Congress for making self-contradictory claims about surgical strikes conducted under the UPA government. When, in fact, there were no such operations conducted under the UPA government as confirmed by the response of the Director General Military Operations (DGMO) to a 2018 RTI query, it said.

“Congress is corrupt, even when it comes to numbers related to national security. However, there were no surgical strikes under UPA as confirmed by the DGMO in response to an RTI query dated April 2018. Darpok Congress must STOP LYING,” the BJP said in a post on X.

In its post, the BJP cited a 2018 report published by Hindustan Times in which senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has claimed that three surgical strikes were conducted under the UPA government. It also cited claims of six surgical strikes under the UPA government between 2008 and 2014, made by the Congress in a social media post on Thursday.

WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY?

The political back-and-forth between the BJP and Congress over surgical strikes was triggered by MP Shashi Tharoor, who said India breached the Line of Control (LoC) for the first time in 2016 to carry out surgical strikes despite his party’s claims that similar operations took place under the Manmohan Singh-led government but were never publicised.

In Panama, Tharoor lauded India’s counter-terrorism measures, including the 2016 Uri surgical strike and the 2019 Balakot airstrike, as marking a shift in the country’s approach to terrorism. He, however, clarified and pointed out in a post on X that he spoke only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars.

The Indian Army, both in a 2016 press conference and an RTI reply, had said what Tharoor has now reiterated. The Army’s Northern Command chief in 2019, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh had said after the surgical strikes in September 2016 that this was a first.

He had quoted a 2018 RTI reply given by the DGMO, which clarified that the first such surgical strike was carried out in 2016. “Army does not have any data pertaining to surgical strikes if carried out before September 29, 2016,” the RTI reply said, upon a query if surgical strikes happened between 2004 and 2014 under the tenure of the UPA government as well.

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