Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that India will no longer consider acts of terrorism as mere proxy war and called the May 7 strikes on nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) a turning point and retaliation to a planned war against India.
“Until now, we used to call these terror attacks a proxy war. But after the May 7 [Operation Sindoor strikes], we can no longer make the mistake of calling it a proxy war,” Modi said in Gandhinagar on the second day of his first visit to his home state of Gujarat after the launch of Operation Sindoor.
Modi, whose arrival in Gujarat on Monday coincided with the 11th anniversary of taking office as prime minister, said the armed forces identified nine terror locations after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, and destroyed them in 22 minutes.
Modi said the terror attacks could not be called a proxy war anymore, as Pakistan organised state funerals for the terrorists killed in the cross-border strikes. “The funerals of these terrorists were state-sponsored. Pakistan’s flags were placed on their coffins, and their army saluted them…This was a planned strategy. It is a planned war,” Modi said. He added that India did not have to give proof, as the videos Pakistan released about the last rites of the terrorists were enough.
Modi linked the cross-border strikes with decades of unresolved aggression from across the border. He referred to India’s partition and said the first terrorist attack happened in Kashmir, and a part of the country’s land was taken. Modi said that had the terrorists been finished off on the same day, the history of terrorism in the region might have been different. He claimed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wanted the Indian Army to remain in Kashmir until the PoK was reclaimed. “If we had followed Sardar Patel’s insistence that the Army should not stop until we reclaimed PoK, perhaps things would have been different. These terrorists who tasted blood kept repeating their acts.”
Modi said the Pahalgam attack was an inhuman part of long-standing cross-border hostility. He said the country had tolerated such attacks for 75 years. “But no more,” he said. He added it was time to remove the thorn that has caused pain to the nation since independence. “Whenever there was a war, the Indian armed forces made them bite the dust. Pakistan realised that they cannot win, hence they started supporting terrorism.”
Modi said the partition marked the beginning of terror attacks. He said Pakistan Army-backed terrorists have targeted innocent pilgrims, passengers, and tourists. “We tolerated it for too long,” he said. “Should we not respond strongly? Should we not remove the thorn?”
He said India always stood for peace and upheld the ancient philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, that the world is one family. “We want everyone, including our neighbours, to live in peace,” he said. “But when we are provoked, they must remember that this land also belongs to the brave.”
Modi referred to the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, which was put in abeyance post-Pahalgam attack, and said that India had not even begun to fully use the water resources granted under the agreement. He added that the treaty was so one-sided that even desilting was not allowed. “Only 2-3% water was left for us. We have not done much yet, but even that has made them sweat,” he said.
He said India’s approach has always been rooted in development and cooperation. “We were working for the good of all. We even helped them in times of trouble. And in return, we got rivers of blood,” he said.
Modi said India’s economy was ranked 11th in the world when he took over in 2014. “Despite fighting Covid and multiple natural challenges, we are now the fourth largest economy,” he said. Modi highlighted India’s economic journey, noting it overtook the United Kingdom, which ruled India for 250 years. He said the country is impatient to become the world’s third-largest economy. “Nobody is ready to wait…if anyone asks to wait, there is a loud shout from behind saying it is possible if Modi is there.”
He said urban areas should be transformed into centres of economic growth to have a developed India by 2047, and added that a roadmap for it is to be made now. “Gujarat will have to now set goals for its all-round development in 2035, when it celebrates 75 years of statehood… One year later, it should be ready for the Olympics. People of the country want the Olympics to be held in India,” he said.
Modi said critics questioned what it would achieve on its own when Gujarat was carved out of Bombay state in 1960. “They pointed to the absence of mineral resources, its harsh geography of sea and desert, and a population largely engaged in trade. But today, the land once known for producing salt is known for diamonds,” Modi said, who launched the Urban Development Year 2025, a new roadmap for urban progress in Gujarat, in Gandhinagar.