Firing a broadside at the UPA-led Central Government at his maiden public rally after being anointed BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Centre of “mishandling” the recent border troubles with Pakistan and China.
“The problems are not at the borders, but it lies in Delhi (Centre),” Modi said addressing a huge gathering of ex-servicemen at Secretariat Ground in Rewari, which was attended by former Army chief General VK Singh and several other retired military officers.
He said a solution to the border issues can only be found if there is a “strong leadership” at the Centre. “The Indian Army is not responsible at all for the security issues. The Union Government is at fault,” said Modi, adding that the Centre was insulting soldiers.
Hitting out at the policies of the Centre, he said, “Every day we are facing problems...Pakistan is not giving up its design...China is showing us its might by intrusions... Is keen to stop Brahmaputra rivers water and wants to take control over Arunachal Pardesh.”
“The Government that is sitting in Delhi is not at all concerned about them. They feel that such incidents keep taking place,” he said.
Modi, in his 65-minute-long address, also lashed out at Defence Minister AK Antony’s statement in Parliament on the killing of five Indian soldiers when he had said that heavily armed terrorists along with people dressed in Pakistan Army uniform were responsibile for the killings.
“It is unfortunate that the country’s Defence Minister makes a statement in Parliament that someone came in Pakistani soldiers’ uniform and killed our soldiers...It must have pained our soldiers,” he said. Charging the UPA Government with ignoring the interest of Army personnel, he demanded the Centre to clear its view about ‘one rank-one pension’ by issuing white paper in this regard. “The reasonable demand of ‘one rank-one pension’ would have been met in 2004 had there been a Vajpayee Government at the Centre," said Modi.
Training its gun on Congress leaders, he said political leaders had divided the society in the name of religion and caste to play vote-bank politics. “If the political leaders wish to see real secularism, they must learn from our armed personnel who are always ready to sacrifice their lives for the safeguard of nation without caring for their religion and caste,” said Modi.
Criticising Pakistan for promoting hatred against India, he asked Pakistan to stop backing terrorism against India. “The rulers in Pakistan should resolve that they will not allow terrorists to operate in Pakistan… I can say with authority that if this happens, Pakistan will see the progress that it has not seen in the last 60 years,” he said.
"Earlier, the war used to take place on the border. But when you (Pakistan) could not defeat the Indian Army, you started going for killing innocent citizens," he added. "Killing innocents through cross border terrorism is neither going to help Pakistan nor India. You cannot progress with anti-India tirade," said Modi.
Noting that the Sunday rally was the "call for change" and that the "land of Haryana has challenged the Delhi Sultanate", he said, "When you are standing amid the Army in battlefield, then your ability to lead is seen.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi today asked youths to exercise their franchise for a strong and powerful government in Delhi. "Do you want a self-reliant, strong and powerful country and strong government at DelhiIJ" he said, asking the youths to exercise their franchise judiciously.
Modi also recalled that he was keen to study in a Sainik School at Jaamnagar but could not do so due to poverty.
The BJP leader also used the occasion to underline the need to make the country not only self-reliant in production of arms and ammunition required by the armed forces but also to take measures to ensure that India can even export arms and defence equipment to the world. He said that there was a need for out of box thinking on issues "but somebody should be there, who thinks. "But there is nobody to think here.... Those sitting in Delhi have no such concern. They are only bothered about when the next tender (defence deal) is going to happen because it is there that lakhs and crores are involved," Modi said.
He said that ex-servicemen could be employed in many services like in fire brigade and in arresting power theft as was done in Gujarat. Former army chief VK Singh said Indian armed forces were in no way lacking in ability. "If we were weakened, we were weakened by our leadership", he said.
Urging the political parties to agree to one-rank, one-pension, Singh had said a few days back that there are 10 crore votes of ex-servicemen, serving personnel and their families settled in Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and political parties could cash in on this by accepting the demand.