New Delhi: Top officials including foreign secretary and Director General Of Military Operations (DGMO) are scheduled to brief a panel of MPs, including congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, on the surgical strikes conducted by the army across the Line of Control on 28 September.
The parliamentary standing committee on external affairs headed by Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor is scheduled to meet on Tuesday when it will be briefed on Indo-Pak relations with specific reference to recent surgical strikes. “Briefing by the foreign secretary, home secretary, defence secretary and Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) on the subject ‘Indo-Pak relations with specific reference to surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC)’,” a notice regarding the 18 October meeting issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat says.
The meeting assumes significance as the government had earlier expressed reservations over briefing on the same topic to the parliamentary committee on defence. However, after initial reluctance, the parliamentary panel on defence headed by BJP MP BC Khanduri was briefed by vice-chief of army staff Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat on the surgical strikes.
The Uri Army base was attacked by heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists on 18 September in which 19 soldiers were killed. In retaliatory action, the Indian army carried out surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the LoC on the intervening night of 28-29 September.
A political slugfest is on between the ruling and opposition parties ever since. Rahul Gandhi had accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of indulging in political exploitation of the sacrifices made by soldiers. His “khoon ki dalali” remark had drawn strong criticism from the government, BJP and some other parties.
