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Rajnath Singh, asked about PM Modi’s statements on India’s tough approach to cross-border terror, said Pakistan also realises that India has the power to hit back now. (PTI)
Speaking to CNN-News18, Lt General (retired) Sanjay Kulkarni said surgical strikes by India, like in Balakot, have put Pakistan on the back foot
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s assertion to News18 of “Ghus ke maarenge” when it comes to action against terrorists on foreign soil, has underlined India’s transformed approach under the Narendra Modi government to push the boundaries in protecting the homeland against terrorism.
This came within a day of ‘The Guardian’ article which claimed that India could have killed as many as 20 terrorists on Pakistani soil through covert operations. When asked about the claims in ‘The Guardian’ article, Singh said: “If any terrorist tries to disturb India from our neighbouring country and do terror acts here, we will give ‘muh tod jawab’ (a befitting answer). If he runs away to Pakistan, we will enter Pakistan and ghus ke maraenge (we will kill him in Pakistan).”
Singh was asked about PM Modi’s statements on India’s tough approach to cross-border terror. “Whatever PM Modi had said is correct (Ghar main Ghus ke maarne vali Baat) as India has that power and now Pakistan also realises this,” the minister told News18 in an exclusive interview.
Speaking to CNN-News18, Lt General (retired) Sanjay Kulkarni said what Singh probably meant was the reference to the surgical series in Pakistan like Balakot.
“Those strikes by India have put Pakistan on the back foot and Pakistan dare not to do anything mischievous as it was planning to do earlier or use terrorism as an instrument of state policy as blatantly as they were doing earlier…because Pakistan now knows and understands that India will react if they do it again,” Kulkarni told News18.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said there has been a change in the template of response to terrorism. “Big terror attacks are down now — be it in J&K or Left-wing extremism. After the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, Air Chief Marshall Fali Homi Major told Manmohan Singh that they could carry out air strikes on camps in Pakistan but the Congress government gave Pakistan ‘Most Favoured Nation’ status. Today, the template is ‘Muh Tod jawab’ with surgical strikes in Pakistan after terror acts,” Poonawalla said.
PM Modi has also spoken twice about his government’s approach of ‘Ghar Mein Ghus Ke Maara’ in his election rallies in Bihar and Rajasthan in the last two days. This call from the Narendra Modi-led BJP worked wonders for the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, after people gave a resounding thumbs-up to India’s twin surgical strikes in Pakistan in 2016 and 2019.
The latest ‘The Guardian’ article, on how the Indian government ordered assassinations in Pakistan as part of a wider strategy to eliminate terrorists on foreign soil, will only buttress and bolster that image of the BJP’s ‘no-nonsense’ approach against terror emanating from Pakistan soil, say political experts. The foreign ministry has denied the assertions in the article but the statements of the prime minister and the defence minister are leaving the matter open to interpretation.
