Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday attended Shaheed Samman Yatra in Pithoragarh. Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt, Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami and Cabinet Minister Bishan Singh Chufal and Ganesh Joshi were also present at the flagging off ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, Singh said India wants good relations with its neighbours but warned that it will give a fitting reply to any country that attempts to occupy even an inch of its land.
"We want good ties with our neighbours. India has never attacked any country. Neither has it ever occupied a foreign territory. Having good ties with neighbours has been India's culture but some people don't understand this. I don't know whether it is their habit or temperament," he said.
Naming Pakistan, Singh said it keeps trying to destabilise India through terrorist activities and a stern message has already been given to it.
"We have given a clear message to our neighbour on the western border that if it cross its limits, we will just not retaliate on the borders but can even cross over into its territory and do surgical and airstrikes," he said.
"We have one more neighbour (which does not seem to understand things)," the defence minister said without naming China.
Singh said he must make it clear that if there is an attempt by any country in the world to "occupy even an inch of our land, India will give a fitting reply to it".
Noting that everyone was aware of India's defining victory in 1971, Singh warned India's neighbours of not living under any delusion.
The defence minister said there was an attempt to create misapprehensions in Nepal about a road from Lipulekh Pass to Mansarovar through Dharchula that was inaugurated by him recently.
"But it has failed to affect our close cultural ties with Nepal," he said.
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Earlier in the day, the minister was given a rousing welcome by the BJP leader as he arrived in Bhadkatiya on a Mi-17 helicopter.
The event was being held as part of the Uttarakhand government's initiative to collect soil from the homes of war martyrs of Uttarakhand to construct a Sainik Dham (Soldiers' Shrine) in Dehradun. In the 2017 assembly election rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced to make 'Sainik Dham' the fifth Dham in Uttarakhand.
In response to BJP's Sainik Dham campaign, the Congress is also honouring the relatives and ex-servicemen of the martyred soldiers. The Aam Aadmi Party has made retired Colonel Ajay Kothiyal the Chief Ministerial candidate. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt honoured ex-servicemen at Someshwar on Thursday.
Since the 1962 war, about 2,285 soldiers of Uttarakhand have been martyred. In 2019, martyrdom of Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal, Major Chitresh Bisht and CRPF jawans Mohanlal Raturi, Virendra Rana in Jammu and Kashmir shocked the entire state.
Uttarakhand has so far received six Param Vir Chakra and Ashok Chakra, 29 Maha Vir Chakra, three Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, 100 Vir Chakra, 169 Shaurya Chakra, 28 Yudh Seva Medal, 745 Sena Nayak, and 168 Mention in Dispatches (MiD).
(with agency inputs)
