Sunday Times 2
Modi: India must build defences so none dares cast ‘evil eye’
View(s):MUMBAI, Aug 16, 2014 (AFP) -
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today that India must build up its military might to the point that no other country “dare cast an evil eye” on the South Asian nation.
Modi made the statement at a ceremony in Mumbai for the commissioning of the country’s biggest locally built warship.
“Our aim is to achieve such prowess in our defence capabilities that no country dare cast an evil eye on India,” Modi told naval officers and other dignitaries.
Indian Premier Narendra Modi delivers a speech from the Red Fort to mark the country's 68th Independence Day in New Delhi on Friday. AFP
India, the second most populous nation in the world, is in the midst of a $100-billion defence upgrade programme.
Modi’s new government has raised the foreign investment cap on India’s defence industries to speed up modernisation of the military.
India has fought three wars with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
The country has also been seeking to shore up its defence capabilities to counter a military build-up by an increasingly assertive China.
Modi said India must stop relying so heavily on defence imports and focus instead on local research, design and manufacture.
India is the world’s largest arms importer with the United States recently overtaking Russia as the biggest arms supplier, followed by France and Israel.
“This warship has been built by India’s engineers, technicians and defence experts,” the premier, considered a hardline nationalist, said in Mumbai.
“It is the biggest example yet of what we can make in India,” Modi said.
“It is the aim of this government to take India from its position of importing every little piece of military hardware to a position where we can export equipment.” Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in May after a landslide general election win.
The 6,800-tonne INS Kolkata is fitted with the most advanced weapons systems, sensors and communication technology.
It is expected to strengthen to India’s maritime capabilities and help secure its huge strategic interests in the region stretching from the Gulf to the Malacca Strait.
| Modi slams rape shame, communal violence
NEW DELHI, Aug 16, 2014 (AFP) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned a spate of rapes as a source of shame for India and urged an end to communal violence Friday as he vowed to improve the lives of the nation’s poor in his first Independence Day speech. Modi, the son of a tea vendor who come to power in May, also delivered a withering assessment of the ruling establishment from the ramparts of New Delhi’s 17th century Red Fort as he addressed often taboo subjects such as sexual violence, foeticide, religious unrest and a lack of toilets. And the right-wing Hindu nationalist restated his solidarity with the wider South Asian region but held back from mentioning India’s great rival Pakistan which is also celebrating its independence 68 years ago. In one of the most eye-catching passages of a 45-minute speech, Modi said levels of rape had shamed India, and he urged parents to take responsibility for the behaviour of their sons rather than put the onus on their daughters. |