Using firm words over the border ceasefire violations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said Indian soldiers had given Pakistan a "fitting reply" and the neighbouring country would no longer dare repeat its aggression.
Praising the Indian jawans, Mr. Modi said Pakistan had been “silenced.”
The PM also promised compensation to those villagers who were forced to flee their homes and suffered losses due to the firing along the international border.
" Pakistan ko muh ki khaani padi hai (Pakistan has got a fitting reply). They won’t dare try this again. Pakistan has got its response, the response has silenced them,” he said at a rally in Amravati.
Assuring the victims of Pakistan shelling, Mr. Modi said the government would take urgent steps to compensate them.
Political opponents, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, had questioned Mr. Modi on his "silence" on the border turmoil even as he addressed multiple rallies in Maharashtra, which goes to the polls on October 15.
“It’s easier to talk than to act,” Mr. Gandhi had said.
Taking on the Congress, Mr. Modi said the party was merely indulging in “commenting” over the situation on the border. “This is not the time for bayan bazi (commenting) but jawan ki goli (the jawan’s bullet).”
Speaking with a sore throat, Mr. Modi addressed his scheduled four rallies in the day but had to cut down on content. In Brahmapuri, in Maoist-infested Chandrapur district, Mr. Modi appealed to the youth to shun violence and take to farming. “Instead of soaking the soil with human blood), you can take up the plough and make it green,” he said.
Raking up the development work done across the State border in Chhattisgarh, which has a BJP Government and is also Maoist affected, Mr. Modi asked: “Chhattisgarh (then part of Madhya Pradesh) was a BIMARU State till yesterday. But today, it finds recognition for paddy cultivation. What are the reasons that farmers in Maharashtra, in regions abutting Chhattisgarh, are still struggling for survival?
In Dhamangaon, Mr. Modi addressed the interests of cotton farmers and said to resolve their woes, the government had devised a "5F" formula: from farm to fibre, to factory, to fashion, to foreign.
