War is against poverty: PM

Says while India exports software, Pakistan exports terror

Addressing a large crowd on the beachfront of this coastal town of north Kerala, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday disappointed those of his supporters, and even some leaders in the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, who had indulged in war mongering and had expected him to do the same after last Sunday’s Uri terror attack where 18 Indian soldiers were killed.

In a tweet immediately after the Uri attack, Modi had assured the nation that those behind the “despicable attack will not go unpunished.” That was all he had said on the issue over the week, while leaders like BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav had demanded “the entire jaw for a tooth”.

Hours before leaving for Kozhikode to attend the party’s national council meeting, the PM met the service chiefs to oversee security situation.

His over an hour long speech, however, was bereft of any war cry — not for the first time Modi has taken a line at variance with that of his ideological fellow travellers. His disapproval of attacks on Dalits by so called ‘gau rakshaks’ at a speech in early August being a case in point.

On Saturday, before he devoted much of his speech to the Uri incident and Pakistan’s role as an “exporter of terror”, the PM thought it necessary to point out to about 100,000 people who had converged in this picturesque town from six neighbouring districts, that India’s economy was the fastest growing among developing countries.

Making a distinction between Pakistan’s rulers and its people, Modi said the day isn’t far when the common people of Pakistan would hit the roads to fight their rulers. Modi asked the people of Pakistan why was it, when both countries achieved independence at the same time, “India has become an exporter of software while Pakistan is an exporter of terror”.

There was a reminder to Pakistan that India will not forget the sacrifice of its 18 soldiers and their martyrdom will not be in vain. Modi said he understood that the people of India were willing to pay any price to defend the pride of their motherland. He, however, seemed to be cautioning the people on the high cost of waging a war and its impact on the economy. “I am looking at your peaceful lives and bright future. I promise you we will achieve that,” Modi said, adding that Indians should know their country’s future was inextricably linked to “peace, unity and harmony”.

Modi ended his speech by stating that his government was marching ahead to fight poverty, with a pledge to construct a 21st century India that is prosperous, sees an end to discrimination and offers equality of opportunity, has jobs for all, is not corrupt and, above all, full of hope.

But in the middle of the speech was a twist that surprised his critics and supporters alike. In a rousing note, he said the people of Pakistan have been misled by its rulers who have sworn to wage a thousand years’ war with India, a reference to statements by former Pakistan prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and former president Zia-ul-Haq in the 1970s and ’80s.

“I want to tell the people of Pakistan that there is a government in Delhi that is willing and able to accept the challenge. India is ready to wage that war,” Modi said to thunderous applause from a jampacked beachfront. “But let us, India and Pakistan, wage a ware against poverty. Let’s see who wins,” he said to a quieter applause. “Let the youth of Pakistan and India wage a war against joblessness, let’s see who is victorious… against illiteracy, gender injustice,” the PM said.

Without referring to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif by name or the latter’s speech at the UN General Assembly on Thursday, the PM slammed Sharif regime for “reading speeches authored by terrorists”.

In what was resonant of the Sangh Parivar’s concept of ‘Akhand Bharat’, Modi said the ancestral land of the people of Pakistan is also the undivided India of pre-1947. “I want the people of Pakistan to ask their rulers why they failed to govern East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). You have Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, but why is it they cannot govern it, or Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunwa, Gilgit and Balochistan,” Modi said, leaving out only Pakistan’s Punjab province, which dominates Pakistani politics, defence forces and levers of power.

Modi said there were immense possibilities that the 21st century would be Asia’s. “All indicators point to this. Every Asian country is putting its heart and sinew to make that possible, every country barring one, which is involved in a conspiracy to have blood on the streets of Asia,” the PM said. He said all countries who are victims of terror, whether Afghanistan or Bangladesh or any other of its neighbours, they hold this one country guilty. He said perpetrators of terror are either from Pakistan, or find shelter there once they have committed an act of terror, like Osama bin Laden did.

The PM spoke about the valour of Indian security forces and police forces in border areas. He said Indian security forces neutralised 17 terror attempts in the last few months, killing 110 terrorists.

He said three eminent people had shaped India’s political discourse in the last century — Mahatma Gandhi, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Ram Manohar Lohia. Modi said Upadhyaya’s birth centenary celebrations, to be launched on Sunday, will be observed as ‘Garib Kalyan’, welfare of the poor, year.