Congress takes on govt., says “questioning narrative, not strikes”

New Delhi [India], Oct. 5 : The Congress Party on Wednesday hit back at the government after the ruling dispensation accused the opposition of demeaning the morale of the armed forces by demanding proof of the September 29 predawn surgical strikes and said that nobody is questioning the strike but they have pointed fingers at the narrative.

Congress leader Manish Tewari took potshots at the government over its decision to publically profile the operations.

"Since the government has decided to take public ownership of this operation then they should have taken it within their purview that this discourse dominance demands that they should be in command of the narrative.

So, therefore, the people are not questioning the strikes, the people are questioning the narrative and that is where the government has come up short," Tewari told ANI.

"It (the government) has not been able to put out a credible narrative, which would play favourably in capitals that we want to influence that Pakistan is a terrorist entity," he added.

The Congress leader further said discourse dominance is an integral part of the asymmetric warfare doctrine and the distinction this time around is that the government decided to publically profile the operations.

"Now, this is not a call that the army would have taken, this is a call that the government has taken and it has unleashed different sets of narratives...there is Indian narrative based on facts and there is a Pakistani narrative which is based on denial and there is an international narrative if we see the entire situation ...if you read the western press, they have been fairly circumspect about what transpired," said Tewari.

"When the army stands up and says that they have conducted operations along the LOC then they have conducted the operations along the LOC and there can be no ambiguity and there should not be doubt about it," he added.

Tewari had earlier vented his ire over the ongoing controversy on the social media and said that India was losing the propaganda war with Pakistan.

"Are we loosing the propaganda pitch internationally? A CNN video Clip?Pak Propaganda or the American establishment weighing in on Pak's side," he tweeted.

The government and the opposition parties have locked horns over the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army with the latter demanding proof of the same from the ruling dispensation at the Centre.

The opposition has demanded that the government "call Pakistan's bluff" and give evidence of the September 29 predawn strikes after several news reports in the international media cast doubt on the same.

The government has accused the opposition of lowering the morale of the armed forces..

Source: ANI