Panaji: The central government will gouge out the eyes of the country’s enemy if it looks at India with a crooked eye, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.
Speaking at an election rally in Aldona village, 20 km from Panaji, Parrikar said Goans should be proud of the fact that one of their own had slapped the enemy, which was eyeballing India in the past, across the cheeks.
“Over the last three days the borders are quiet because if we are fired upon once we fire twice. Tit for tat. Stone for a brick. When they realised this, they came to us and said enough. We do not want to wage war but anyone who has set a crooked eye on the country, then this government has the strength to gouge out their eyes and put them in their hands,” Parrikar told the rally.
“When I went to the centre, you can say with pride to the entire country, that one of our own went there and slapped the enemy which in the past was glaring at us, four times across its cheeks,” Parrikar said.
The former Goa Chief Minister also recalled words of wisdom from his mother, which he said he recalls often, especially when dealing with Pakistan.
“If you go to hunt hares in a forest be prepared to fight a tiger, my mother used to tell me. I have not forgotten what she told me when I was a child… Our country’s border is safe, the country’s economic backbone is secure. This, people have realised after demonetisation,” Parrikar said.
Parrikar also said that in India’s commercial capital Mumbai, supari (underworld slang for contract killing), extortion has stopped and the crime graph has dipped after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation decision.
“Supari has stopped, extortion has stopped, because if one goes to a builder and says, if you don’t give me khokha (underworld slang for Rs 1 crore) then I will come after you, the builder simply gives them a khokha (also means box in Hindi),” the Defence Minister said.
“Because a khokha has actually become a khokha. There is no value for those notes to giver and taker. So extortion has stopped,” he said.
“Even drug money, drug movement in Mumbai has collapsed. Overall, in a metropolis like Mumbai demonetisation has reduced the crime graph,” Parrikar said.
–IANS