As economic clout grows, efforts to destabilise country, says Rajnath Singh

Ruchika Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 17

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said owing to India’s growing economic clout at the international level, there were efforts to destabilise the country and its march towards development.

Addressing a regional editors’ conference here, Singh said it was important that India, which shared its borders with six countries in south Asia, should have effective border management.

He said India is among the fastest growing economies and should be among the top three in a few years; as a result, there were efforts to destabilise her.

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The Home Minister said, “We have taken steps to have peaceful borders with Myanmar and Nepal. Bangladesh and Myanmar are active borders. The border along China and Pakistan are strategic and sensitive.”

He said, “The Sino-Indian relations are smooth and there has been reduction in transgressions along the India-China border. It has dropped by 40 per cent in the past one year, and 70 per cent since 2014. The dispute over the India-China border is secondary, but trade is of prime concern.”

Pakistan on the other hand, he said, is obsessed with certain areas and is isolating itself because of that.

He said even in the BRICS summit, all countries, including China, had condemned Pakistani support for terrorism. Pakistan did not know the difference between freedom fighters and terrorists in Kashmir, he said.

“The state actors in Pakistan are actively involved in this. Thus we are ready with our action plan on border management after the Madhukar committee report. By 2018, our border with Pakistan--3,323 km--will be made secure,” he said.

Both physical and non-physical barriers were being erected, Rajnath said. A pilot project in Jammu, Gujarat and Punjab is being implemented on the use of non-physical barriers, he added.

Denouncing Pakistan for terrorism, he said Pakistan should understand that they are rearing snakes which could bite them. “Surgical strikes were the counter-terror operation. It was an anti-terror strike. We had intelligence that terrorists were to be pushed inside India, so we conducted the strikes,” he justified the action.

“We hate Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and not Pakistan or its people. Pakistan should stop its terror factories which will lead to peace in South Asia,” he said.

Talking about the north-east, Rajnath said, “Insurgency along Myanmar had led to surgical strikes there too in the past. We will take definite steps against terror groups in the north-east. We have also done framework agreement with some groups. It’s because of our efforts that there is relative peace in the north-east. Incidents of violence are at an all-time low. Diplomatic engagement, too, is part of our strategy.”

He said that on the issues of fake Indian currency and drugs, Myanmar and Bangladesh are cooperating with India. He said the preparedness of security agencies is good. Coastal security arrangements are also good; efforts are on to improve these further.

Rajnath said left-wing extremism is a major challenge in some states, of which Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar were an area of concern. “We have deployed more security and are engaging people by initiating development works. As many as 140 such extremists were killed this year. Citizen-casualty is much less this year,” he said.