Former Northern Army Commander Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, the face of the “surgical strikes” carried out across the Line of Control in 2016, said on Friday that the initial euphoria over the operation’s success was natural but the constant hype around it unwarranted.
Lt. Gen. Hooda said in hindsight, it would have been better had India carried out the strikes secretly. The aim of any such offensive had to be not only tactical but strategic too, which substantially hampers enemy morale, he said, adding that he could not say with certainty if India had actually achieved that objective in full measure.
The former Northern Army Commander was speaking during a discussion on ‘Role of Cross-Border Operations and Surgical Strikes’ at the Military Literature Festival 2018 here.
The event, inaugurated by Punjab Governor V.P. Singh Badnore, was attended by a battery of former Lieutenant Generals and Army Commanders.
Defence commentator Colonel (retd) Ajai Shukla cautioned against the recent trend of colouring military achievements with political motives.
‘Dangerous benchmark’
“The excessive publicity of the September 2016 strikes, which had in fact been a retaliatory 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,” he said.
Col. Shukla said that Pakistan had, in fact, been emboldened by the strikes as it knew that the Indian government would now always be under immense pressure to strike across the border after each terror attack.
Citing the example of the 1981 Israeli air strikes on Iraqi nuclear sites, which had caused considerable damage, Lt. Gen. (retd) N.S. Brar underscored the need to ensure long-term impact on the enemy before undertaking any such operation in future.
