Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that India would retaliate with double the force if anyone tried to harm its sovereignty.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that India would retaliate with double the force if anyone tried to harm its sovereignty.
He was speaking at the Red Fort, where, in a first, a Prime Minister unfurled the tricolour to commemorate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army.
“Our military might has always been for self-defence and will remain so. We have never coveted others’ territories. But whoever becomes a challenge to India’s sovereignty will be answered with double the strength,” Mr. Modi said, asserting that India’s armed forces were moving towards greater technical prowess.
Heaping praise on the late freedom fighter, he accused the Congress of having attempted to obliterate the contribution of Sardar Patel, B.R. Ambedkar and Netaji Subhas Bose to “project one family”. The reference was to the “Nehru family”.
Mr. Modi recalled that he as Gujarat Chief Minister had organised a function in 2009 to commemorate the Haripura session of the Congress, where Bose had been elected Congress president.
The PM asserted that the feeling of nationalism was important, paying tributes to Bose for being a great nationalist.
At the INA Trials at the Red Fort, Mr. Modi said, INA veteran Shahnawaz Khan said that Bose was the first man who made him think about India within Indian frames.
“It is our misfortune that those who created our systems after Independence saw India through the frames of England. Our culture, languages, education system, curricula and system suffered because of this,” Mr. Modi said.