‘Clip of prime minister’ talking about his visit to Tiger Hill surfaces on 25th Kargil Vijay Diwas, with some minor high-altitude problems
NEW DELHI – An undated audio clip of Narendra Modi released on Friday morning – the 25th anniversary of the official end of the Kargil War – had him claiming that he stood in white kurta-pyjama “at a height of 18,000 feet surrounded by the blood-soaked bodies of brave soldiers with the joy of saluting the shrine of Maa Bharati”.
In the clip, he adds for good measure that the jawans were surprised to see a man in kurta-pyjama at 18,000 feet.
The claim had only one problem, as pointed out by Raj Bhaduri, an ex-pilot; Kargil neither had a helipad nor any peak that’s 18,000-foot high, a report published by The Telegraph stated.
“Among the highest posts captured during Kargil was Tiger Hill (16,600 feet), Tololing (16,800 feet). How did he climb 18,000 feet?’ asked Bhaduri on social media.
“In the entire Dras-Kargil-Batalik sector there was no helipad. In any case no civilians were allowed inside the active war zone,” said Bhaduri.
The audio clip of Modi, in which he is heard speaking in Gujarati, was posted on X (formerly Twitter) by a handle called Modi Archives @modiarchive which has a blue tick, which in Elon Musk’s company means the owner of the handle has paid for it. Started in September 2022, the handle has this as its bio: “Modi Archive narrates the life journey of PM Narendra Modi through archival pictures, videos, audio recordings, letters, newspaper clips & such other material.”
The handle has over one lakh followers, and follows only the prime minister’s grey-tick handle. Union home minister Amit Shah follows the Modi Archives handle as do a host of other BJP leaders.
According to the archives’ post Modi, then working as general secretary of the BJP in-charge of Himachal Pradesh, had boarded an Mi-17 helicopter that was carrying essential supplies for the soldiers.
“In the midst of the Kargil war, I had the honour of visiting Kargil on the morning the Indian Army captured Tiger Hill. Immediately after their victory I had the honor of visiting Tiger Hill. As a son of Gujarat it was one of the proudest moments of my life,” Modi is heard speaking in Gujarati in the nearly five-minute audio clip, which comes with subtitles.
What is not clear is when Modi had delivered this speech and where.
During the same visit, Modi had also made the wounded soldiers being treated at the Army Hospital in Srinagar.
“Modi met a soldier who had lost both arms and legs to a mine explosion. Despite being unable to receive the relief materials physically, the soldier’s spirit remained unbroken. He told Modi that he hadn’t felt any pain since hearing the news of Tiger Hill’s recapture,” read a post on the thread made on ‘X’.