New Delhi [India], May 30 (ANI): Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala has said that party MP Shashi Tharoor's recent remarks about surgical strikes, made as leader of all-party delegation, were factually incorrect and that Congress party had only corrected the record by pointing out that the surgical strikes in Pakistan and also at other dens of terrorists 'were regularly executed' during Congress-led UPA government to give a befetting reply to terrorists.

He said surgical strikes had been carried out by the armed forces and when the Congress-led UPA government was in power.

'Those instances have been detailed in the past by the AICC Communication department. Mr Shashi Tharoor, in his book, has also spoken about these surgical strikes during Congress government. Even former Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in the past, spoke about these surgical strikes. Mr Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera have set the record straight. It should not be matter of any acrimony or doubt,' Surjewala told ANI.

'Shashi Tharoor is a senior Congress leader and very much part of Congress family However, what he said about the surgical strike was factually incorrect,' he said.

Shashi Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to partner countries to highlight India's zero tolerance to terror and Operation Sindoor, said in Panama that India has changed its approach in recent years, and terrorists have also realised t

+hey will have to pay a price.

Referring to 2016's surgical strike and 2019's Balakot airstrike in his address, the Congress MP said, 'What has changed in recent years is that the terrorists have also realised they will have a price to pay; on that, let there be no doubt. When, for the first time, India breached the Line of Control between India and Pakistan to conduct a surgical strike on a terror base, a launch pad - the Uri strike. That was already something we had not done before. Even during the Kargil War, we had not crossed the Line of Control; in Uri, we did, and then came the attack in Pulwama in January 2019.'

'This time, we have not only gone beyond the Line of Control and the international border. We have struck at the Punjabi heartland of Pakistan by hitting terror bases, training centres, and terror headquarters in nine places,' Tharoor added.

Tharoor's remarks led to some Congress leaders articulating their disagreement.

'How could you denigrate the golden history of Congress by saying that before PM Modi, India never crossed LOC and the International border. In 1965 the Indian Army entered Pakistan at multiple points, which completely surprised the Pakistanis in the Lahore sector. In 1971, India tore Pakistan into two pieces and during the UPA government, several surgical strikes were unleashed, but drum beating was not done to encash it politically. How could you be so dishonest to the party which gave you so much?' Udit Raj said on X.

Udit Raj also called Tharoor the 'super spokesperson of BJP.'

Congress leader Pawan Khera cited from Tharoor's 2018 book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister, to highlight that surgical strikes were also done during the Congress government.

'The shameless exploitation of the 2016 surgical strikes along the Line of Control with Pakistan, and a military raid in hot pursuit of rebels in Myanmar, as party election tool--something the Congress had never done despite having authorized several such strikes earlier--marked a particularly disgraceful dilution of the principle that national security issues require both discretion and non-partisanship,' the passage from the book said.

In a post on X, Tharoor responded to criticism directed at him and pointed out that he spoke only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars.

'After a long and successful day in Panama, I have to wind up at midnight where with departure for Bogota, Colombia in six hours, so I don't really have time for this -- but anyway: For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC in the past, I was clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars,' he said.

'My remarks were preceded by a reference to the several attacks that have taken place in recent years alone, during which previous Indian responses were both restrained and constrained by our responsible respect for the LoC and the IB,' Shashi Tharoor clarified.

'But as usual, critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views and words as they see fit. I genuinely have better things to do. Goodnight,' he added. (ANI)