‘Govts didn’t admit to earlier surgical strikes’

Panaji: Recalling the surgical strikes conducted against Pakistan, former defence minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal lauded the courage shown by the Narendra Modi government in undertaking and announcing the audacious cross-border raids. Utpal said that earlier governments had conducted surgical strikes too, but chose not to acknowledge the incidents.
Utpal, who was speaking at a memorial lecture in honour of his father, said that the surgical strikes marked a turning point in India’s defence posture.
Parrikar served as defence minister for just three years, but he adopted a tough stance against terror outfits, something that was seen after he gave the Indian Armed Forces a free hand in the 2016 surgical strike against terror launch pads in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, he said.
“I always wondered — everything went well and there was no casualty on our side — but what if the operation had got botched? It was a tough decision and anything could have gone wrong. We could have lost our soldiers, they could have got captured, tortured. But the prime minister took a bold decision,” said Utpal.
“That surgical strike, we all know because the government showed guts to own up to it. Even before, there were many surgical sites, but not announced,” said Utpal.