Brussels: Speaking on the backdrop of recent terrorist attack in Brussels, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, extending condolences to the families of the victims, said terrorism must be delinked from religion, no religion teaches terrorism.
Addressing the Indian community in Brussels, Modi said, “India has been battling terrorism for four decades. But world recognised the perils of terrorism only after 9/11 attack in United States of America”. Giving a call to fight against terrorism, Modi said, “Terrorism is a challenge to humanity. People who believe in humanity need to come together, fight terrorism.” He declared that India would not bow to terror and would keep fighting against it.
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Modi regretted that the United Nations had not been able to come up with a structured response to terrorism. He said the UN has not been able to fulfil its responsibility in this regard, and had not come up with a suitable resolution. Despite the huge threat, the world is not able to deliver a proportionate response to terror – and terms such as “good terrorism” and “bad terrorism” end up strengthening it, he said.
Talking about the economic growth of India, Modi opined that “India is the lone light of hope amidst the global recession; fastest growing economy in the world”. While citing the development tale of his government, Modi mentioned about the ‘GiveItUp’ scheme. He said, “When we decided to direct transfer gas subsidy into buyers accounts, around Rs 15,000 crore that was being stolen earlier was saved. Our campaign on gas subsidy led to 9 million people surrendering their subsidy, helping millions of poor families to get gas connections”.
Modi further added, “There was record output of coal in 2015. Also record production of electricity and record cargo handled at major ports”. The record production of milk in 2015, maximum investment in rail infrastructure, 21 crore new accounts through Jan Dhan Yojana were the other achievements of his government, Modi pointed out during his address.
Modi said investment in Railways has been enhanced substantially, because he believes that the Railways can be the spines of the Indian economy.
Talking about his government’s aim to provide electricity to each village of the country, Modi said, “8,000 villages in India are still without electricity. We will bring them electricity within 1,000 days, of which 7,000 have already been electrified”. He also mentioned about the pick up in the pace of road construction. He said the whole world was surprised when he had declared a target of 175 Gigawatt of renewable energy, but the country was now on track to achieve it.
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Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh, which was pending for at least four decades and was resolved last years during Modi government’s regime, was also highlighted during his address to the India community in Brussels.
He also mentioned about the cordial relation with Bangladesh, and the way the neighbouring country helped in resolving the land boundary agreement issue. But he took an indirect dig at Pakistan and said, “Some neighbours fail to understand the meaning of cordial relation, but nothing can be done as they are neighbours after all.”
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Taking a dig at the Opposition, mainly on congress, Modi said, “ We don’t indulge in vote bank politics; we think about the welfare of all, including those who don’t choose us as their representative”.
Before concluding his address, Modi outlined the new benefits available to NRIs and said the community now feels connected with our embassies. He added that the government is also in the process of exceeding the free baggage limit for visitors to India.
Modi is on a three-nation visit, wherein the EU-India summit at Brussels was the first leg. After his community address, Modi left for the second leg of the visit to United States to attend the Nuclear security Summit.
