STATE TIMES NEWS
KATHUA: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday accused Pakistan of “conspiring” to divide India on religious lines but said it will not succeed.
“Pakistan is conspiring to divide India on religious lines but it will not succeed. We were divided in 1947 on religious basis. We have not been able to forget that… All Indians are brothers, whether they are born from the womb of a Hindu mother or a Muslim mother,” he said addressing a Martyrs’ Day function in Kathua district.
“Nation’s heart beats for the brave heroes and their families,” said Singh, while addressing a mammoth gathering during Shahidi Diwas organized at Ramleela ground here. “They (martyrs) laid down their lives and sacrificed their present for our better future,” he said, adding “there isn’t a single State whose jawans have not laid down their lives for the nation in Jammu and Kashmir and similarly our jawans from this State too have showed their courage in protecting the nation.”
He was accompanied by Minister of State in PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh.
The Union Home Minister said terrorism is the weapon of cowards and added that India would give a befitting reply to the ceasefire violations from the other side of the border. “Pakistan should understand that terrorism is not the weapon of brave, but of cowards,” he said.
Referring to the surgical strikes by the Indian Army, post Uri terror attack, he said, “I want to assure that this government will never let India to bow its head before anyone and will always give befitting reply to enemies of peace.”
The Home Minister said that Union government has already given nod for creating vacancies for 10,000 SPOs and also for creating new five Indian Reserve battalions.
Minister of state in PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh while paying homage to martyrs gave details of the various schemes launched by the Government of India for Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh said nowhere in the world other than India 72 sects of Islam live together peacefully.
He said that as the Home Minister of the country, he wanted to make it clear that India is committed to taking along everybody and moving ahead on the path of development.
He also offered India’s cooperation to Pakistan to eradicate the menace of terrorism from its soil.
“If Pakistan is serious about eradicating terrorism but is incapable of doing that and wants cooperation, we are ready to help it eradicate terrorism from there,” the minister said. He said, “We want to live in peace with Pakistan but it has indulged in sponsoring a proxy war against India.
“Every Prime Minister of India wanted to mend relations with Pakistan but it did not understand the language of peace and attacked India four times. But our brave soldiers gave them a befitting reply.”
After repeated defeats, Pakistan has understood that it cannot defeat India in wars so it has resorted to sponsoring proxy war, he said, adding that “terrorism is the weapon of weak and not the brave”.
Singh said that while the entire world was concerned about the spread of ISIS, the terrorist organisation has failed to spread its roots in India.
Singh credited the Muslims of India for thwarting the designs of ISIS to spread its tentacles in the country.
“When the entire world is worried about ISIS, I can say it as the Home Minister of the country as I know the reality that ISIS has not been able to spread its roots in India and the credit for this goes to the Muslims of the country, the followers of Islam,” he said.
He said that the people might not be aware that if a member of somebody’s family gets radicalised, the family comes to him and appeals to save their child from the clutches of ISIS.
“Pakistan will never understand this India. Pakistan came into existence after India got divided on religious lines but still it could not keep the entire Pakistan united.
“In 1971, the same Pakistan got further divided into two pieces and I feel if Pakistan does not mend its ways, it would further get divided into 10 pieces and India will have no role in that division of Pakistan. We will not do it,” Singh said.
He said that Indian ideology has never been that of an expansionist and history is witness to the fact that India has never attacked any country for expanding its boundaries.
“We do not want to conquer any other country, we do not want to harass any other country. India is a country of saints and sages who advocated that the whole world is one family. We not only consider the people living within the boundaries of India as our family members but the people living on this planet are part of our family,” he said.
The minister said India always wanted friendly relations with Pakistan and that was why soon after the Kargil war ended, the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee extended a hand of friendship toward Pakistan.
“Not only this, he went to Pakistan but what has Pakistan given in return, repeated ceasefire violations,” he said.
He said that “during the visit of the officers of Pakistan Rangers to India I told them that the Border Security Force or Indian soldiers will not fire the first bullet on any civilian of Pakistan because at some point in time it was part of our family”.
“We still do not consider them separate, they are still our brothers and we do not want to fire a bullet on any brother or any human being but keep it in mind that if you fire the first bullet on the soldiers of India then we will tell our soldiers not to keep count of the bullets they fire,” Singh said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘notebandi’ decision has resulted in ‘nasbandi’ for anti-national elements and hoarders of black money. “To control the menace of terrorism, separatism and Naxalism, the Prime Minister took the demonetisation decision. “However, some people are making fun of it by terming it as ‘nasbandi’ (vasectomy). If we have cut anyone’s ‘nas’, it is that of terrorists, Naxalites and people who hoard black money,” Rajnath said.
He said the decision had been taken in the larger interest of the country, and appealed to people to cooperate with the move.
“Prime Minister has stated that he needs 50 days and after that the situation would improve,” Rajnath said.
“Prime Minister has stated that he needs 50 days and after that the situation would improve,” Rajnath said.
“There is no dearth of people in India who want to sacrifice their life for the country. No power in the world can think of harming the integrity of the nation,” he said.
Among others, the function was attended by Minister for Animal, Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries, Abdul Gani Kohli, Minister of State for Hajj & Auqaf, PHE and Irrigation & Flood Control, Power Development, Industries and Commerce, Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi, MLA West (Jammu) Sat Sharma, MLA Kathua, Rajiv Jasrotia, MLA Hiranagar Kuldeep Raj, MLA Ravinder Raina, MoS Farooq Darabi, MLC Charanjeet Singh Khalsa, Prem Nath Dogra District President, Pawan Kotwal Division Commissioner, Danesh Rana IGP, Ramesh Kumar DC Kathua and Pawan Parihar SSP Kathua.
‘Pak responds to friendship offers with terror attacks’
Kathua: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said India has always wanted to have friendly relations with all its neighbours but Pakistan has betrayed India and returned peace initiatives with terrorist attacks.
Referring to the invitation extended to SAARC countries for the oath-taking ceremony of Narendra Modi, he said this was done because “we realised if we want to make India a powerful country we need cooperation of all neighbouring countries”.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, before the formation of the government, had held a party meeting and we decided if we want to make India a powerful country we need cooperation of all the neighbouring countries. So we decided to invite all the neighbouring heads of state/government and we invited Nawaz Sharif also, and he had come,” Singh said. “Sharif was invited not just to shake hands but let the hearts of the two countries to meet,” he said, adding Pakistan should understand “our intentions but it has failed to do so”.
He also said Modi, “breaking all the protocols”, went to attend a function in Sharif’s family while returning from Afghanistan.
“We try our best that our neighbours live in peace with us. We want development of India as well as that of Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. All should progress. We want this. But what has Pakistan given us in return of our large-heartedness? “We got Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Uri where terrorists entered and launched cowardly attacks on our soldiers,” Singh said. “But we also showed them what we are capable of,” he added. “I thank our soldiers who succeeded in giving the message we cannot only hit them here but if need arises we can hit them anywhere,” Singh said, referring to the surgical strikes carried by the army inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
He accused Pakistan of continuously fuelling terrorism and said India wants friendly ties with the neighbouring country but will never compromise on the issue of terrorism.