Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday extended his condolences to the families of those who died in the helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu earlier this week, and said the death of General Bipin Rawat was a loss to every patriot.
Modi was speaking at the launch of the ₹9,800-crore Saryu Nahar National Project in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh. He said doctors were working hard to save the life of Group Captain Varun Singh, the sole survivor of the crash.
Modi referred to Rawat’s efforts to strengthen the coordination between the army, navy and air force, and said the campaign will continue to move swiftly in order to make the security forces ‘aatmanirbhar’.
“Wherever Gen Bipin Rawat may be, in the days to come he will see India moving ahead with new resolutions,” he said.
“India is mourning but despite being in pain, neither do we stop our pace nor our development. India won’t stop. India won’t be at a standstill. Together, we Indians will work hard and face every challenge inside and outside the country,” he added.
Also read: Gen Rawat: The man who rose through ranks to become country’s first CDS
Modi also used the launch of the project to criticise Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav.
With Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by his side, the PM said: “When I started from Delhi, I was waiting since morning ki kab koi aayega aur kahega (when will somebody come and say)… we laid the foundation stone for this project. Some people do this out of habit, maybe they cut the ribbon for this project in their youth. Some people’s priority is ‘imagination’, our priority is execution.”
“It is the nature of some people only to cut ribbons and then forget about the work. It may be true that they have cut the ribbon of a project years or decades ago, but that is all they do – cut ribbons. Our nature in the ‘double-engine ki sarkaar’ is to complete the work and deliver the projects on time,” he said as he urged people “to punish previous governments”.
The project, he said, would benefit 29 lakh farmers.
Modi’s remarks were in response to Yadav’s tweet in the morning on the Saryu project, which read: “To complete the Saryu project that was 75 per cent complete at the time of Samajwadi government, the BJP took five years… In 2022, the Samajwadi Party will herald a new era… and the state will reap the benefits of development.”