Balakot, Surgical Strikes Showed India Can Defend Itself Both Within, Outside Borders: Rajnath Singh

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday asserted that the Balakot airstrikes and surgical strikes sent a message that India can defend itself within its borders and beyond.

Speaking at an event in Bihar’s Rohtas district, Singh praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving the military operations in meetings that “lasted barely 10 minutes, with no more than four to five people in attendance”.

He was taking part in the ‘interaction with intellectuals’ organized by a private university founded by Gopal Narayan Singh, the former head of the Bihar unit of the BJP, who was present on the occasion. It made possible the return of Indian students who were trapped in Ukraine when it was attacked by Russia.

Russia was bombing Ukraine with its heavy artillery. Modi has spoken with Russian, Ukrainian and American presidents. The war was stopped for four hours and the students were brought back. Singh said the world seemed excited about the feat. He said Modi’s government had similarly succeeded in bringing back students stranded abroad when country after country was imposing lockdowns in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In line with our stated model of ‘vasudhaiv kutumbakam’ (the world is a family), we have not only vaccinated every citizen, becoming the only country in the world to do so, but also exported vaccines to countries that need these,” he said. Modi’s ‘Make in India’ call has transformed the defense sector. Our defense exports, which used to be worth a paltry Rs 900 crore, have now reached more than Rs 16,000 crore. We are committed to raising it to Rs 35,000 crore in the next two years.”

Noting that the total defense manufacturing has reached Rs 1.10 crore, Singh said the country has come a long way since it relied on imports for most of its defense requirements. The defense secretary also touched on the welfare schemes launched by the Modi government and claimed that they were proof that “we have a prime minister with an unheard of level of sensitivity”.

He added, “We may not have been able to eradicate corruption, but no one can deny that we have taken decisive steps in this direction.” Singh, who was previously the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, emphasized that his party sees “politics as a way to serve the people and not just to grab power”. He said that the abolition of Article 370 and the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya proved that “there is no difference between the words and deeds of this party”.

Visibly impressed by the speech of BJP Bihar President Samrat Chowdhury, who spoke earlier, Singh said, “I am confident that our party will form the next government in the state, with a complete majority.” The defense minister asserted that “India under the leadership of Narendra Modi is finally getting the respect it deserves among the courtesy of nations.”

A few years ago, the global financial analyst Morgan Stanley crossed India with Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey and noted that these countries were on the brink of economic collapse. “She has now revised her mind and notes that the country can rank among the top five economies in the world by 2027… We must now become a developed country by the time we celebrate 100 years of independence in 2047,” Singh said. . “We are already among the top five, which is a huge improvement from 2014 when we were not among the top ten,” Singh said, indirectly referring to when Modi came to power.

“Our culture is being respected too. Foreigners are increasingly willing to refer to our country as Bharat, rather than India. ‘Angreziyat’ (anglicisation) is on its way out,” Singh said. Earlier, he gave a speech at a university convocation ceremony, where he praised, among other things, the entrepreneurial spirit of the country’s youth, and cited an article by American commentator Thomas Friedman that weighed Infosys against Al Qaeda, which showed how different the Indian IT giant was from the global terror group despite To attract educated youth into their ranks.

Urging the students to also remember their teachers with respect and gratitude, Singh recalled a personal anecdote related to the ‘Maulvi’ he learned as a child and whose feet he touched after becoming the Education Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)