New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said peace will be possible in India’s neighbourhood only if Pakistan stopped exporting terror.
“If they stop exporting terror, it will be very easy to maintain peace,” Modi told ABP News on Thursday. “This is not a difficult task.”
Modi added that it was “very difficult” to know who runs Pakistan.
“Whether it is the elected government or whether it is the Army or the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or those who have left Pakistan and are staying abroad. Whom to talk to is a big issue for everyone,” he said.
Modi declined to say who was the better Prime Minister: Nawaz Sharif or Imran Khan.
“Let this be decided by the people of Pakistan. My work is to focus on the interests of India. I have no responsibility to run the affairs in Pakistan,” he said.
On some in India seeking evidence of the Indian Air Force strikes in Balakot in Pakistan, he said it was Pakistan which tweeted and announced that New Delhi bombed its territory.
“Pakistan gave the proof in its tweets… I am surprised that some Indians are speaking a language that pleases Pakistan and it bothers me. If India had targeted the Pakistan Army or their citizens, our neighbours would have tried to defame India.”
Modi told the TV channel: “We ensured that no Pakistani citizen was harmed. The IAF successfully did what was planned.”
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the IAF bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) training camp at Balakot, 12 days after the terror outfit claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir which killed 40 CRPF troopers.
He rejected the claims of anti-incumbency against his government ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and said that for the first time there is pro-government sentiments in the country.
Prime Minister also said that as a result of the measures taken by his government, fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi had to land in jails of the countries where they fled.
“I can’t find anti-incumbency against the government. For the first time, I can see there is pro-incumbency. There is a wave,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister said that in the last seven days, he had travelled around 70 per cent of the states and what he was claiming was based on his experience.
“I am the one who loves to be among the public. I can see there is a pro-government wave. This itself is a happy moment for the democracy,” he said.
Asked about fugitives like Nirav Modi, Mallya and Choksi fleeing the country in the last five years, the Prime Minister said it was because of the measures taken by his government that these people had to flee the nation.
“It is because of the measures taken by us that these fugitives had to land in jails of the countries where they fled. It is because of us that their properties are being seized,” Modi said, adding that the nation was run by law and his government was making full use of it.
The Prime Minister said these fugitives cheated the country with so much money in a span of 10 years, but not after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power.
“They (fugitives) didn’t know that a government like this would come and take actions against them. Therefore they got scared after we came to power and fled,” he said.
To a question that Muslims didn’t believe in the BJP, the Prime Minister said he didn’t believe in doing anything for the Hindus or the Muslims specifically. Instead, he believed in doing things for the people of the country.
“During Manmohan Singh’s tenure as the Prime Minister, a Sachar Committee was formed. The committee members came to Gujarat when I was the Chief Minister and asked me what did my government do for the Muslims?
“To which I responded that my government didn’t do anything for the Muslims and nor will it do anything in the future. In fact, my government didn’t do anything for the Hindus either, because my government worked for the welfare of the people in general,” he said.
Citing “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas” as his mantra, the Prime Minister asserted that there was no place for religion in his government.