Lt Gen DS Hooda (Retd), who was the Northern Army Commander, when 2016 surgical strikes were carried out by the Army along the Line of Control in the wake of the Uri attack, has asserted that “it is not good” when “military operations get politicized”.
He claimed that the leakage of photographs and videos of the strike created “unnecessary hype” about this military operation, which even acquired political color.
While chairing a discussion on the ‘Role of Cross-Border Operations and Surgical Strikes’ at the ongoing Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh, Hooda said that there was an “attempt to keep a purely military operation in the political domain by selective leaks of videos, photographs etc.”
Some other veteran army officers in the panel also said, “Glorification of the military operation was unwarranted, as it could not serve any major tactical or strategic purpose.”
They also claimed that the much-touted surgical strikes had failed to deter Pakistan, which was continuously infiltrating on Indian soil even after that.
Lt Gen NS Brar (retd), who also served as a member of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), questioned, “Whether the political head would have owned the responsibility had there been causalities in the surgical strike.”
Criticizing the strike, he said, “It was difficult to assume that the September 2016 strikes forced Pakistan to change or review their policy.”
Former Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCAS) Lt Gen J S Cheema (retd) while calling the operation successful, also took a jibe at the “advertising” of the strike and said, “It was too simplistic to assume that Pakistan would rethink its course of action against India after the much advertised surgical strikes.”
Col Ajay Shukla (Retd), who is a noted expert on defense and strategic issues, commented, “There was nothing new in the surgical strike, as this is a way of life for the troops at the Line of Control. The excessive publicity of the September 2016 strikes, which had in fact been a reactionary strike conducted after the Pathankot and Uri attacks, had set a dangerous benchmark for the Indian political dispensation, which they would find difficult to maintain in the eventuality of future terror attacks.”