No one can look at India with crooked eye: Gadkari

NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of the India-China standoff, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said no one can dare to stare at India with a crooked eye.

“We will dedicate our lives to this nation. We will make this nation happy, prosperous and powerful so that no one can look at our country with a crooked eye,” said the Union Road Minister speaking at Jan Samvad, a virtual rally being organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday.

Stating that during the Narendra Modi government regime Maoism and terrorism have declined, Gadkari said earlier governments appeased terrorists. He hailed Modi for this hawkish policy. To attack the Congress, Gadkari talked about the Batla House encounter. “The Congress leaders went to the house of terrorists killed to console them. But they didn’t go to martyred soldiers’ houses,” he said.

He said the Modi government decided to check the surplus water from flowing to Pakistan. “After partition, India and Pakistan got three rivers each. Our water was flowing to Pakistan as there was no consensus among our states,” he said. Talking about abrogation of Article 370 and Ram temple, he said, “We did whatever we promised.”

Making a pitch for self-reliant India, he highlighted his ministry’s achievements, like highways and e-driving licence. On the first Prime Minister, the BJP said on Wednesday Jawaharlal Nehru had “Russian influence” on him.