Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at Congress' claim of launching surgical strikes during their tenure and said, as far as he knows, the previous UPA government's claims were false, in an interview with Hindustan Times last week.
Modi's remarks were in response to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claims that multiple surgical strikes were carried out by the UPA regime but the government never used them for political gains.
Singh had condemned the politicisation of armed forces and said, military operations were meant for strategic deterrence and giving a befitting reply to anti-India forces, than to be used for vote-garnering exercises.
Modi claimed the army chief at the time of the UPA tenure said they do not have any information on such strikes.
The BJP has used the valour of the Indian armed forces as a poll plank and invoked them in public rallies in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
“For a decade or so, the Indian government had tied its own hands as far as Pakistan-backed terror was concerned," Modi said, adding that with the surgical trike and then the air strike, right message has been sent to the those who sponsor terror.
‘Confident of Coming Back to Office’
JeM Chief Masood Azhar was listed as a global terrorist after China withdrew its technical hold on the listing recently. Talking about Azhar, Modi said while everyone was wrongly describing it as a China-related issue, in reality, it was about "global terror," reported Hindustan Times.
Further, Modi expressed confidence of winning the Lok Sabha elections and said he has been this way from his first day as prime minister. Denying that the elections were reduced to a presidential one where the focus is more on the candidate, he said the election is based on "performance, not perception."
The three issues that matter are “development, inclusive development, and development in all directions,” Modi said, adding that 2019 elections are special because this is the first time those born in the 21st century are voting.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times.)
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