SASARAM (Bihar), June 10: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today asserted that the Balakot airstrikes and the surgical strikes sent a message that India can defend itself both within and outside its borders.
Speaking at a function in Rohtas district of Bihar, Singh lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having approved the military operations at meetings that “lasted barely 10 minutes, with not more than four to five persons in attendance”.
He was taking part in an “interaction with intellectuals” organised by a private university founded by and named after Gopal Narayan Singh, a former president of the BJP’s Bihar unit, who was also present on the occasion.
The Defence Minister showered encomiums on Modi for making possible the return of Indian students who were trapped in Ukraine when it was attacked by Russia.
“Russia was pounding Ukraine with its heavy artillery. Modi had a word with Russian, Ukrainian and American presidents. The war was halted for four hours and the students were brought back. The world looked agape at this feat,” said Singh.
He said the Modi government had similarly succeeded in bringing back students stranded abroad when country after country was enforcing lockdown in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In line with our professed ideal of ‘vasudhaiv kutumbakam’ (the world is a family), we not only inoculated each and every citizen, becoming the only country in the world to have done so, but also exported vaccines to countries which needed these,” he said.
“Modi’s ‘Make in India’ call has transformed the defence sector. Our defence exports, which used to be worth a paltry Rs 900 crore, are now worth more than Rs 16,000 crore. We are committed to raising these to Rs 35,000 crores in the next two years,” he said.
Stating that the total defence manufacturing has reached Rs 1.10 lakh crore, Singh said the country has come a long way since being dependent on imports for most of its defence requirements.
The Defence Minister also touched upon welfare schemes launched by the Modi government and claimed that these were proof that “we have a Prime Minister with a level of sensitivity that has been unheard of”.
He added, “We may not have been able to eradicate corruption, but nobody can deny we have taken decisive steps in that direction.”
Singh, who has formerly been the BJP’s national president, stressed that his party saw “politics as a means to serve the people and not merely to grab power”.
He also said that the abrogation of Article 370 and the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya proved “there is no gap between the words and the deeds of this party”.
Visibly impressed with the speech of Bihar BJP president Samrat Choudhary, who spoke earlier, Singh said, “I am confident that our party will form the next government in the state, with full majority”.(PTI)
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