India won’t be helpless in face of terror: PM Modi

Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu): Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on Friday that the country will no longer be “helpless” in the face of terror, saying a “New India” will pay back the terrorists with “interest”, and that their influence has been curtailed and will be curbed further.

Mr Modi also accused some Opposition parties of doubting the armed forces and his government’s fight against terrorism, saying their statements were helping Pakistan and harming the nation. Telling the Opposition parties to stop weakening India with their statements to strengthen their own politics, the PM said: “Modi will come and go, India will remain.” He did not name any party.

Addressing a public meeting here, the PM also hailed Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, saying every Indian was proud of him. “Every Indian is proud that the brave Wing CommanderAbhinandan belongs to Tamil Nadu,” he said after inaugurating several projects in the rail and road sectors.

Mr Modi said he was proud that India’s first woman defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was from Tamil Nadu.

Reiterating his government’s resolve against terrorism by retaliation, Mr Modi criticised the previous Congress-led UPA government for not using such aggressive tactics and accused it of “blocking” surgical strikes after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in November 2008. The country, he said, has been facing the menace of terrorism for years “but there is a big difference now... India will no longer be helpless in the face of terror”.

“This is a New India, this is an India that will return the damage done by terrorists with interest,” he said, adding that the “influence of terrorists and terrorism is curtailed and is going to be curtailed even more”.

The events of the past two days, an apparent reference to the IAF’s airstrikes on a JeM terror camp inside Pakistan and the IAF’s shooting down a Pakistan fighter jet, have demonstrated yet again the strengths of the nation’s armed forces, he said. “It has also brought our nation closer,” the PM said, a reference to the outpouring of support to Wing Commander Varthaman and to India’s armed forces from the people.

However, he said, it was sad that a few political parties “suspect our fight against terror”. When the entire nation supports the armed forces, they “suspect the armed forces”, he said. “These are the same people whose statements are helping Pakistan and harming India. They are the same people whose statements are happily quoted in the Parliament of Pakistan and in the radio of Pakistan,” Mr Modi said.

“I want to tell them — Modi will come and go, India will remain. Please stop weakening India to strengthen your own politics,” he said. “We are Indians first and your politics can wait... It is the safety of our nation that is at stake,” the PM said.

Citing reports, the PM said though the Indian Air Force

wanted to carry out surgical strikes after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the “UPA blocked it”.

“The nation expected those responsible for these acts of terror to be punished, but nothing happened. 26/11 (Mumbai terror attacks) happened in India but nothing happened,” Mr Modi said.

“And today we are in an era where the news reads armed forces have full freedom to do what they want.”