In a stern warning to Pakistan, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Dehradun on Saturday that the neighbouring country should reckon with the fact that the story of the country’s retaliation against terror unleashed by it has not ended yet. More would unfold in the coming days, he said, without mentioning the surgical strike conducted post-Uri terror attack. He further said that the previous Government soft-pedaling the issue of terror had emboldened the neighbour further. But the Narendra Modi Government was different, he said while talking to the intellectuals from Uttarakhand at ANM Ghosh auditorium.
Tearing into the previous UPA Government, Jaitley said that with the then Prime Minister being reduced to a powerless entity, the Government then lacked the will to act. “This was why the economy declined and national security was compromised. This resulted in all-pervasive despair. Now, things have changed for the better. We are progressing fast,” he said.
Stressing on development of the villages, the minister said that they were trying to pull private fund to be invested in the villages. “We are focused on providing basic services to the people. To help the poor stride ahead developmentally, we have ensured that they open up bank accounts. More would follow,” he said.
Dwelling on the Kashmir tangle, he said that it had resulted from the bungling on the part of some leaders. “But such blunders would not be repeated as long as we are at the helm of things. There is no power on earth that can separate Kashmir from us. We have made it clear that there is no room for negotiation with the separatists. The neighbour had better refrain from pampering those fanning terror. If they fail to mend their old ways they would have to pay heavy price,” Jaitley warned.
He further said that experiences had taught them that holding closed door meetings with the separatists would not yield any positive result. “What is needed is to rally the common people against the threat of terror. This is what our Prime Minister has been doing,” he said.
Taking a dig at dynastic rule, he said the day of a political party being controlled by a single family is over. “This is an anachronism which can hardly survive the ethos of the present age,” he said.
Dwelling on the political crisis that engulfed Uttarakhand a few months ago, Jaitley said a majority government turning into minority and then again into majority was an exciting matter for a lawyer like him. “If I venture to write a book what happened in Uttarakhand recently would definitely figure in it,” he said.