New Delhi, March 31: Architect of the pot-Uri surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in 2016, Lt Gen (Retd) DS Hooda, has submitted a blueprint on national security to Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The latter, on receiving the report, said the Congress party would internally deliberate over the vision document in the coming days.
The report, submitted by Lt Gen Hooda on Sunday, comes nearly a month after he was roped in by Rahul Gandhi to head a "task force on national security" constituted by the Congress party. The former northern Army commander was asked to prepare a vision paper to strengthen the internal and external security of the country. Congress Has Insulted Martyrdom of Soldiers, Put Question Mark on National Security: Amit Shah.
"Lt General (Retd) D S Hooda & his team have put together a comprehensive report on India's National Security, that he presented to me today. This exhaustive report will at first be discussed & debated within the Congress party (sic)," the Gandhi scion said on Twitter.
Here's What the Congress Chief Tweeted:
Lt. General (Retd.) D S Hooda & his team have put together a comprehensive report on India's National Security, that he presented to me today.
This exhaustive report will at first be discussed & debated within the Congress party.
I thank him & the team for their effort. pic.twitter.com/ZebbSh3Dvj
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 31, 2019
The retired Army officer headed the panel set up by the party and prepared the paper in consultation with a select group of experts.
Lt Gen Hooda met Gandhi earlier today and handed over the report. Following the meeting, he said, "The Congress president had constituted a task force on national security headed by me. I prepared a national security strategy document and today submitted it to him."
On September 29, 2016, the Army had carried out the strikes on seven terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in retaliation of an attack on its base in Uri earlier that month.
Last December, responding to a question during a panel discussion at the Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh, Hooda had said that in hindsight, it would have been better had "we done it (surgical strikes) secretly".
He had also said the initial euphoria about the success of the surgical strikes was natural but the constant maintenance of the hype around the military operation was unwarranted.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 31, 2019 04:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).