Taking a swipe at Pakistan, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday that the country does not live up to the meaning of its name -- land of the pure -- and keeps doing nefarious acts.
"There is a neighboring country of ours whose name is 'Pakistan' but its activities are 'na-pak' (nefarious). However, this won't go on for long," Singh said in his address to the Indian diaspora in Singapore, to the laughter and applause from the audience.
Speaking on his government's decision to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution, Singh said that while he understands that there must have been circumstances in the past owing to which the Article must have been put to place, it was unfortunate that a full-fledged state had not been integrated with the country after all these years.
Singh said that his government would never compromise national interest and national pride with political interest at any cost "because we do politics not just to make the government but to make the nation."
He reiterated his government's commitment to make India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024 and said that the nation is heading forward at a quick pace compared to most of the other countries at the time of global economic slowdown given its strong consumer demand.
"We are a USD 2.7 trillion economy today, the double of what we were four and a half years back. By 2025-26, the size of our economy will be USD 5 trillion. We are heading forward at a quick pace," Singh said.
"Some people cast doubt over our promise to achieve the target by 2024 given the economic slowdown. I believe that the impact of the global economic slowdown has not been as much as on the other countries due to the strong consumer demand. We are heading at a quick pace and things would be better after March," Singh added.
Singh is on a two-day visit to Singapore to attend the India-Singapore Defence Ministers' Dialogue.
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