Digvijaya Singh’s Pakistan surgical strike comment causes social media storm, veterans condemn remark

The BJP also attacked the Congress leadership over the comments of Singh and the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh reacted by saying it was his personal comment and not the party’s stance.

Former chief of the Indian Army General (retd) V P Malik and Air Marshal (retd) Raghunath Nambiar were among those who have rubbished Singh’s statement. Both have joined scores of other ex-servicemen of all ranks to deride what they said was an attempt to cast a shadow of doubt over the surgical strikes in the wake of the Uri and Pulwama terror attacks.

Malik condemned the attempt to question the country’s own armed forces. He tweeted, “Sad to see some politicos becoming serial offenders on India’s security issues…. repeatedly questioning our own armed forces’ successful operations”.

Nambiar, the former AOC-in-C Western Air Command, told the media it was incorrect to cast doubts on the Balakot air strike and that Singh was misinformed.

“This gentleman does not know what he is talking about. He has been misinformed and he does not know the facts. I took over as the commander in chief of Western Air Command two days after the Balakot air strike and I am fully aware of what transpired. Let me assure all of you that our brave pilots did exactly as they were briefed and achieved all the objectives we had set for them. Please do not believe any lies and be rest assured that the Balakot air strike was a thumping success,” he said in a video message.

Most veterans commenting on the issue on social media have said the defence services should not be dragged into political controversies as they are apolitical and perform tasks as assigned to them.