Kusum Arora

Jalandhar

A day after General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt General Ranbir Singh said that 2016 surgical strike by the Indian Army was the first surgical strike, his father Lt Col Manmohan Singh (retd) said that ‘cross border raids’ have been renamed as ‘surgical strike’ and it was just a normal operation for the Army.

Col Manmohan differed from his son’s viewpoint and said that there was no such term as ‘surgical strike’ in the glossary of military terms compiled by the think tank of the Army. “Surgical strike was magnified out of proportion. These are highly confidential operations, not meant for public discussion. As a soldier, one is supposed to carry out such operations secretly, which is a normal thing in the Army”, he said.An Artillery officer, Col Manmohan Singh, who fought in the 1965, 1971 wars and Op Rakshak said, “We are seasoned war soldiers. My son remained DGMO and is Northern Army Commander but he cannot utter an extra word about it.

Ranbir’s task was to execute the operation and take counter action, which he did as per requirement.”Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, was the then Director General Military Operations (DGMO), when surgical strike was conducted post Uri attack. Recently, in an RTI reply, the DGMO had informed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that the first surgical strike was carried out in 2016.Notably, Lt General Ranbir Singh is the legally adopted son of Lt Col Manmohan Singh, who is settled in Jalandhar. Col Manmohan also served as Deputy Director of District Sainik Board, Jalandhar for a long time.

On surgical strike and Balakot air strike becoming political subjects in Lok Sabha Elections, the results of which would be declared on May 23, Col Manmohan said, “It should be delinked from politics. Why mix up Balakot air strike? What has surgical strike got to do with the political scenario in the country?” he said, refusing to further comment on the debate over national security and nationalism. Sharing his experience of cross border raids, he said as a young officer, even he had volunteered to go behind the enemy line during the 1971 war and came back the next morning.

“I was posted in Jammu and Kashmir and as an Observation Post Officer (OP), I went inside the Chamb-Jodian sector to direct the artillery fire. Nobody even in my unit was aware that where we had gone and what kind of operation we conducted”, he added. Earlier, he emphasised that army was apolitical and such operations were meant to be kept highly confidential. “The number of helicopters used, unit’s name, soldier’s location and the confidential details were best kept secret, only”, he maintained.

For more news updates Follow and Like us on Facebook