“Pak PM plead in public for us to pick up the call”, says PM Modi on what happened in Balakot

"Government has managed to contain terrorism to only ‘two and a half’ districts in Jammu and Kashmir, and that no bomb blast took place on civilians elsewhere in the country in last five years", said PM Narendra Modi today.

Addressing an election rally at Amreli in Gujarat, PM Modi also said that what he learnt in Gujarat has helped him during the Doklam standoff with China in 2017.

Referring to various incidents of bomb blasts in the country before 2014, the prime minister said that "In the last five years no bomb blast took place (against civilians) in any other part of the country. We managed to contain terrorism to just two and a half districts in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

On Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s statement of trying to approach India after the Balakot air strike, PM Modi said that the leader "had to make a public plea to us to pick up the phone."

Hitting out at the previous Congress-led governments in the country, he said had the Sardar Sarovar project been completed 40 years ago, Gujarat would have been much better today.

In 2014, the Congress came to its lowest tally in parliament after Independence and in 2019, it is fighting on the lowest number of Lok Sabha seats it has ever contested, but still "dreaming" of becoming the ruling party, the prime minister said.

PM Modi also said that the tallest statue of Sardar Patel built in Gujarat was not intended to disrespect late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.