Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed himself for Pakistan’s greatest insecurity and said he had travelled to Lahore to testify to the “power” of his neighbour. His quip was a reference to comments made by Indian National Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar that India should respect Pakistan because it has the nuclear bomb.
During the interview Indian TVRecalling his visit to Lahore in 2015, PM Modi said, “I made a personal visit to Pakistan to see how powerful it is.”
He said that during his visit to Lahore, Pakistani journalists wondered: “Oh my goodness, he came to this country without a visa,” but I told them that before I knew it, this was my country.
Here, the Prime Minister was referring to undivided India before the 1947 partition.
The prime minister also responded to allegations that India was behind “targeted assassinations by unknown killers” of terrorists.
Modi said he understood the concerns of the Pakistani people and that the root cause of those concerns lay with him, but added that he did not understand the fuss being made by some in India over the issue.
“I know the people of Pakistan are worried right now and I know that I am the root cause of their worries. But I also know that there are people in our country who are worried. I can understand why they are crying but I don’t understand why our people are crying,” he said.
Implicitly criticising the Congress, PM Modi said, “The leader of a respected political party which ruled our country for 60 years and was in power during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks has once alleged that it was our people who killed our own people, and not Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab and his cohorts. This is truly sad. How can such a party leader make a statement in support of Pakistan and Ajmal Kasab? Every time I hear such statements, my head hangs in shame. My heart aches.”
Addressing an election rally in Patiala, Punjab state, on Thursday, PM Modi pointed out that more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered in the 1971 India-Pakistan war and asserted that if he had been in power, he would have taken Kartapur Sahib before disengaging Pakistani forces.
He also blamed the Congress for bifurcation of the country, saying it was done for power.
Partition left Kartar Sahib in Pakistan’s Punjab province, just a few kilometres from the Indian border. “For 70 years, we have been able to have ‘darshan’ of Kartar Sahib temple only through binoculars,” PM Modi said.
He said that in 1971, more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered to Indian forces and the opportunity arose to retake Kartarpur Sahib, “and we had our trump card in hand.”
“If Modi had been there then, I would have taken Kartarpur Sahib from them (made it Indian) and then released their troops,” he said.
Find out more about the 2024 Lok Sabha elections schedule, voter turnout and upcoming developments on the News18 website.
