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Journalism of Courage
Marking the 25th anniversary of India’s victory against Pakistan in the Kargil War, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that Pakistan “has not learnt from its history despite its failures” and that it is trying to “keep itself relevant through terrorism and proxy wars”.
Addressing a gathering of serving and retired Army officers at the War Memorial in Drass, the Prime Minister said, “I am speaking from a point where terror masters can hear me directly. I would like to tell them that their nefarious designs will never succeed and our brave forces will crush terrorism. The enemy will be given a forceful response.”
Remembering soldiers who lost their lives during the Kargil War, the Prime Minister said the nation is in their debt and that even at that time, India was making efforts for peace while Pakistan displayed its “distrustful” demeanour. He said that the victory in Kargil does not belong to any party but to the whole nation.
Modi also said that reforms in the defence sector were not prioritised by previous governments, but in the last 10 years, “due to our prioritisation of defence reforms, our forces are more effective and atma nirbhar (self sufficient). The Indian defence industry is being given a bigger share in procurement and 25 per cent of the research and development budget has been reserved for the private sector.”He said the forces have provided a list of over 5,000 items, including weapons and other defence equipment, that will not have to be imported. “I congratulate the defence leadership for this,” the PM said.
Terming the Agnipath scheme a “necessary reform by the armed forces”, Modi said the average age of personnel in the Indian forces being higher than the global average has been a matter of concern. Various committees debated this issue for decades, but “the will to address this challenge was missing earlier”, he said.
“Through the Agnipath scheme, we have addressed this. The aim is to keep the force young and to keep them ready for war at all times. Unfortunately, a sensitive issue connected to national security was made a matter of politics by some people,” he said.
“These are the same people who have perpetrated scams worth thousands of crores in the defence sector and weakened the forces. They did not want the Air Force to have advanced fighter jets and had prepared to keep the Tejas fighter plane boxed away,” Modi said.
Taking further aim at “those who are misleading the youth of the nation”, he said they “do not care for soldiers” and that they are “the same people who lied about One Rank One Pension… It is our government that implemented OROP.”
As the fifth anniversary approaches of the revocation of J&K’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, and the bifurcation of the former state into two Union Territories, the PM said that in Ladakh and in Jammu and Kashmir, the country will defeat any effort impeding development of the region.
“J&K is staring at a new future and bigger dreams. It is now recognised through global summits like G20. Infrastructure development and tourism are growing swiftly in J&K and Ladakh, and after over three decades, Srinagar has seen (Muharram) taziya processions.”
The Ladakh region has witnessed agitations against its UT status and demanding statehood for nearly five years. The PM said that the welfare of the people of Ladakh is a priority of the government and efforts are being enhanced to provide all-weather connectivity to the region, including the Shinkhun La Tunnel, work on which began today with a blast triggered remotely by the PM.
“We are making all efforts to increase the ease of living for the people of Ladakh, and in the last five years, we have expanded Ladakh’s budget from Rs 1,100 crore to Rs 6,000 crore,” he said.
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