Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said India will give a befitting reply to those who try to disturb peace in India. He went on to say that cross-border terrorism from Pakistan will be met with asymmetric cross-border retaliation. Singh’s statement echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sentiments from a recent election rally, where he asserted that India’s stance on terrorism has changed under his reign and “the enemy knows that this is New India, which enters into enemy territories to give a befitting reply to them (Yeh Naya Bharat hai jo ghar mein ghus ke marta hai).”
Both statements reflect how over the past 10 years, India’s policies on terrorism, miscreants, and neighbours, especially Pakistan and China, under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, have shifted from slow-to-anger diplomacy to a harder, more outspoken diplomacy.
The Modi government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism and is conveying to the international community India’s determination in its fight against the menace.
News18 looks back at the times when under the Modi government, India’s top leaders spoke tough on terrorism.
▶️ Addressing a public rally in Saharanpur today, PM Modi said, “The stones thrown by stone-pelters in Kashmir, Modi took that stone and started building Vikasit Jammu & Kashmir… Today, every Indian says, ‘Niyat sahi to natije sahi’. BJP govt works without any discrimination, we want our policies to reach everyone and for this, we have worked for 10 years. Our mantra is ‘Saturation’, which means people should benefit 100%, that’s the real secularism and social justice…I gave you a guarantee that desh jhukne nahi dunga.”
▶️On Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in a conversation with Network18’s Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi about a report in The Guardian newspaper which claimed that Indian agencies had a hand in the assassination of 20 terrorists inside Pakistan, said, “Whichever terrorist tries to disturb India from our neighbouring country or carries out terrorist attacks here, we will retaliate against them harshly,” Singh.
“If he flees to Pakistan, we will enter Pakistan and kill him,” he added.
▶️ On Thursday, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar also affirmed India’s stance on Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir and that we will never accept that PoK is not an integral part of India.
“On the issue of PoK, there is a National position and not the party’s position. The parliament of India has taken a united stand supported by every political party. We will never accept that the PoK is not an integral part of India. The central issue when Pakistan is concerned is terrorism, and on the terrorism issue, we as a party and the govt very clear that we will not ignore terrorism and won’t look away when terrorism happens. We will deal with it, will reply and that has been our record,” he said while addressing the media.
▶️ In March, Rajnath Singh, while speaking at ‘AAP ki Adalat’ programme on India TV, said that the people of PoK are themselves raising the demand for a merger with India and expressed confidence that the people of PoK will merge with India.
“PoK was ours, PoK is ours, and I am confident that PoK will itself merge with India.” Singh said.
▶️ During the winter session of Parliament in December 2023, Home Minister Amit Shah, while speaking in the Rajya Sabha, attacked India’s first Prime Minister of Independent India-Jawaharlal Nehru over the Jammu and Kashmir issue.
Shah reiterated his accusations that it was because of the ‘Nehruvian blunders’ that Pakistan could ‘illegally’ occupy a portion of Kashmir, known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), or Azad Kashmir.
“Jahan tak nazariye ka sawaal hai, desh ki ek bhi inch zameen ka sawaal hai, humara nazariya tung rahega, hum dil bada nahi kar sakte. No one has the right to give away a section of our land to show off their big heart,” Shah had said.
▶️ In a warning to people posing a threat to the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not only brought Ram to the state but will also ensure “Ram Naam Satya” (chant used at funerals) for those who threaten society and warned that “we will make the life of criminals miserable”
“Earlier, no one ever thought that daughters and traders could venture out at night without worry. We ensure ‘Ram Naam Satya‘ (last rites done) for the danger posed to the safety of daughters and businessmen. We live our lives chanting Lord Ram’s name. Without Ram, nothing is possible. But when someone poses a threat to the security of society, ‘Ram Naam Satya‘ is also certain,” Adityanath said on Friday.
▶️ In 2022, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, during a New York visit, took a veiled dig at China and its ally Pakistan and said, “On the challenge of terrorism, even as the world is coming together with a more collective response, multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators.”
He seems to be referring to the repeated holds and blocks on proposals to blacklist terrorists, specifically those based in Pakistan such as Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar.
He also called Pakistan the epicentre of terrorism and said, “The world today sees them (Pakistan) as the epicentre of terrorism. Now I know we have been through two-and-a-half years of Covid and a lot of us have brain fog as a result. But I assure you the world has not forgotten where does terrorism (emanate), who has their fingerprints over a lot of activities in the region and beyond the region.”