Pakistan had to publicly plead to us to de-escalate: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 18 said his government managed to contain terrorism to only two-and-a-half districts in Jammu and Kashmir and that no bomb blast took place elsewhere in the country in last five years.

Addressing a poll rally at Amreli in Gujarat, Modi also said that what he learnt in Gujarat helped him during the long Doklam standoff with China in 2017. Referring to various incidents of bomb blasts in the country previously, he said, “In the last five years no bomb blast took place in any other part of the country. We managed to contain terrorism to just two-and-a-half districts in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

On Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement of trying to approach India after the Balakot air strike, Modi said the leader “had to make a public plea to us to pick up the phone”. Hitting out at the previous Congress-led governments in the country, he said had the Sardar Sarovar project been completed 40 years ago, Gujarat would have been much better. In 2014, the Congress came to its lowest tally after Independence and in 2019, it is fighting on the lowest number of Lok Sabha seats but still “dreaming” of becoming the ruling party, he said.

Modi also said that the tallest statue of Sardar Patel built in Gujarat was not intended to disrespect late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. “This is not an election rally for me, but a rally to say thanks to people of Gujarat for the grooming I received here,” he said.