As per report a day after India dismissed Pakistan’s claims that it was trying to sabotage talks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said although the country staunchly believes in peace and is committed to taking it forward, it cannot be “at the cost of compromising our self-respect and the sovereignty of our nation”. Meanwhile, when speaking at his monthly radio address Mann ki Baat, the PM also warned that the country’s soldiers would “give a befitting reply” to anyone attempting “to destroy the atmosphere of peace and progress”.
Furthermore with his government observing the second anniversary of the 2016 ‘surgical strikes’, on terror bases on Pakistan soil, as ‘Parakram Parv’, Modi said, “It has now been decided that our soldiers will give a befitting reply to whosoever makes an attempt to destroy the atmosphere of peace and progress in our nation. Hence we staunchly believe in peace, we are committed to taking it forward, but not at the cost of compromising our self-respect and the sovereignty of our nation. Moreover, India has always been resolutely committed to peace.”
Moreover, Modi’s warning to Pakistan came a day after External Affairs Minister’s Sushma Swaraj’s speech at the UN General Assembly accusing Pakistan of being “an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity”. Hence Swaraj also justified the decision to call off a recent meeting she was to have with her Pakistani counterpart, calling the latter’s claims that India was trying to sabotage the talks as a “lie”. Further, Modi pointed out that India is one of the largest contributors of personnel to various United Nations Peace Keeping Forces.
