Thread by @FrustIndian

When Kargil war was won, it was an occasion of great pride among the Indians, all of whom were lauding the Indian army. Amongst the celebration, there was one particular organization that was extremely sour-faced. The Congress party.

The grand old party, headed by Sonia Gandhi, had taken it upon herself to see to it that the Kargil war was dismissed and deemed unworthy. Irrespective of the government, army and even Pakistan agreeing on an Indian victory, Congress was determined to prove otherwise.

@KanchanGupta in his article for Rediff outlined Sonia Gandhi’s take on the war. He wrote, “In spite of its best efforts to portray India’s thumping military triumph over Pakistan & unprecedented diplomatic success over Kargil as a “defeat” and a “failure”,the Congress

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..party has so far not succeeded in convincing any self-respecting Indian newspaper to portray India as the loser and Pakistan as the winner.

Sharif (former Pakistani PM) has failed to convince the Pakistani press to portray his army’s humiliating defeat as a victory over India”

@KanchanGupta further mentioned that the Congress party, in its efforts to purport the BJP as the midseason, had tried to claim that the “Vajpayee government had struck a deal with the Pakistan government on Kargil almost three weeks before the guns fell silent.”

according to the congress party, “the ABV Govt had dragged on the conflict for political gains at the cost of the lives of our soldiers.” For this, they had relied upon a report by The Guardian, which was based on “Pakistan Information Minister Mushahid Hussain’s propaganda.

During the war as well, the opposition was anything but supportive. The party’s head of the external affairs department, K. Natwar Singh stated, “Inko chullu bhar paani mein doob marna chahiye (They should drown themselves).”

Ironically Singh was fired very soon.

The Congress Working Committee called the BJP, “coordinationless, cohesiveless, careless caretaker government.” In various parts of the country, Youth Congress burnt effigies of Vajpayee and George Fernandes (the union defense minister).

That’s right all this during the war.

Sonia and her cronies wanted gain advantage from the situation. Vajpayee’s government had collapsed and fresh elections were due after the war. She was aware that a successful war had led to popularity for the ABV GOV and hence did everything to belittle the war itself.

Not only did Sonia attempt to provoke the media but also adopted other means to show an Indian defeat in the war. She clamored for an emergency session of RS, to discuss Kargil; irrespective of the fact that she chose not to attend any of the all-party meetings called by the PM

Then, she demanded an “inquiry into the government’s “failure” in Kargil. When it was pointed out that the Indian Army had won the battle for Kargil, Sonia Gandhi’s retainers retorted: the army may have won, but the government has lost.

Thereon, when the government constituted a team to look into all aspects of the Kargil conflict, the Congress expectantly denounced the inquiry by questioning the credibility of those charged with the responsibility of conducting the inquiry.

In all these attempts, Sonia Gandhi led Congress didn’t realize that they were just not playing the role of the opposition and questioning the current government, but were actually challenging the Armed Forces.

Thousands of martyrs had laid down their lives in the war, and Sonia‘s acts statements were highly insulting to them. Not only that, by choosing to criticize the army, allege a loss when there was a victory and side by the Pak, Congress for the first time wore anti national robe

After realizing the atmosphere of the country was extremely patriotic, and that her allegations against the Vajpayee government were falling flat, Sonia Gandhi sought to remind the voters of Indira Gandhi and 1971’s decisive victory against 🇵🇰, leading to the creation of 🇧🇩

Where Congress was referring to Kargil as “BJP’s war”, Vajpayee referred to Kargil as a victory of the nation. Needless to say, Congress’ views on the war did not favor amongst the people and they went on to lose the Lok Sabha elections, 1999.

And all of it is happening again. As India and China appear on a collision course, congress has gone back to its Kargil days. Leaders can change, faces can change, years can change but the basic DNA of a party never changes.

Happy #VijayDiwas