Defence deals were ATMs for Congress: PM Modi in Solan

Blaming the Congress, he said, “The high import was because the defence deals were like ATMs for them (the Congress) to extract money, so they didn’t let the country become self-dependent (in terms of production of the defence equipment). There is no defence deal over which serious allegations of corruption have not been levelled against them.”

Stating that at the time of freedom, the country had up to “150 years of expertise and experience in manufacturing defence equipment”, while China, at the time, had no defence manufacturing units, he claimed that “now the situation is the opposite”.

He said that while China has become a premier country in defence export, India is now a big importer of defence equipment.

However, he claimed that the BJP had tried to change the situation. “The BJP government has tried to change this in the past five years. There has been an increase of 80 per cent in the manufacturing of defence equipment,” he said.

Attacking the Congress over its overseas chief Sam Pitroda’s recent “hua toh hua” remark on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Modi said that on the one hand the Congress leaders ask for votes in the name of their ancestors, but when questioned on their actions, they say “hua toh hua (It happened, so what?)”. “This hua toh hua mentality weakened the country national security policy,” he added.

The BJP had won all for seats in the state in the 2014 polls. Asking the people to vote for the party yet again, he shouted the slogan, “Phir ek baar Himachal mein char ki char (Again, all four seats in Himachal)”.