NEW DELHI, Nov 4: In keeping with the tradition he has started since he became the prime minister in 2014, Narendra Modi on Thursday celebrated this year’s Diwali with the army jawans at Nowshera sector in the border district of Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir.
Every year, Modi spends Diwali with the soldiers in some advanced border posts or the other, sometimes in snow-laden Himalayan borders, making the festival a memorable occasion for the jawans.
“I want to spend Diwali with family members, so I join you on this festival,” Modi said. Since taking over as prime minister, Modi has made it a point to meet troops in a border region on Diwali, starting from a visit to Siachen in 2014.
Addressing the soldiers at Nowshera after sharing sweets with them to celebrate the day, Modi said India must enhance its military capabilities in line with the changing world and modes of war and noted that modern border infrastructure has been built to augment connectivity and troop deployment.
The prime minister lauded the role played by the brigade in Nowshera in surgical strikes. India had conducted the surgical strike on September 29, 2016, across the Line of Control (LoC) as a response to a terrorist attack on an Army base in the Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
Modi said many attempts were made to spread terrorism here after the surgical strike but they were given a befitting reply.
He said connectivity in border areas has improved — be it from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh or Jaisalmer to Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Borders and coastal areas lacking normal connectivity now have roads and optical fibres, and this boosts deployment capabilities as well as facilities for soldiers, the prime minister said.
Modi also said earlier the country had to depend mostly on imports in the defence sector but with his government’s attempts indigenous capabilities have gotten a boost. He said about 65 per cent of the defence budget is being spent on procurement within the country. “Today Arjun tanks are being built inside the country, aircraft like Tejas are also being made inside the country,” PM Modi said. “Earlier, it used to take years together to procure defence equipment for the security forces. The commitment to self-reliance in the defence sector is the only way to change old methods.”
He hailed the courage of soldiers and said their capability and strength has ensured peace and security for the country. Calling soldiers the “suraksha kawach” of ‘Maa Bharti’, he commended them for tirelessly protecting the country’s borders. “It is because of you all that people of our country can sleep peacefully and there is happiness during festivals,” he said.
Army chief General M M Naravane had carried out an aerial reconnaissance of forward areas, including Rajouri, on Wednesday and he was briefed about the prevailing security situation along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Jammu region.
An Army operation against terrorists has been going on through the forest belt in the Poonch-Rajouri area. This has been the longest such operation in the recent past and it entered the 26th day on Thursday.
(Manas Dasgupta)
