the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said the video circulating of the ‘surgical strike’ proves that India did indeed strike at terror bases inside Pakistan territory thus disproving Opposition propaganda to the contrary.
Parrikar who was Defence Minister of the country when the Army claimed to have executed the “surgical strikes” in 2016 told reporters that the Indian media should not go into the question of how such sensitive footage got leaked and was broadcast on national television.
The issue has snowballed into a major controversy after some national television channels broadcast it with some quarters questioning the timing of the leak and imputing political motives with general elections due next year.
Parrikar said that there was nothing to indicate that the Defence Ministry leaked the footage aimed at gaining mileage ahead of the general elections due in 2019.
Somehow the footage may have landed in the hands of some people, just as journalists manage to get scoops, he said.
He taunted the media’s tendency to go into the question of how and why the footage surfaced now.
“Why go into the issues of how it has come, why it has come?,” Parrikar asked, adding that elections are quite some time away and so it is not exactly for the elections.
Parrikar also declined to certify the footage of the 2016 surgical strikes which was broadcast on national news channels yesterday.
“I am certifying that the surgical strikes took place,” Parrikar said, adding that he is ‘not certifying’ the video.
Nevertheless, he said the footage is adequate to disprove the Opposition in India which doubted the surgical strikes.
Parrikar also said that Pakistan had never effectively questioned the strikes then, perhaps due to its limitations on striking back at India.
If they accepted it, they would have to strike back at India, he said.
