Want to manufacture BrahMos so that no country has audacity to cast evil eye on us: Rajnath Singh

Lucknow, Dec 26: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that India is manufacturing BrahMos missiles not to attack any country and it is developed to prevent the enemies from looking the country with "an evil eye."

"The BrahMos missile and other weapons and defence equipment we are manufacturing are not to attack any other country. It has never been the character of India to attack any other country or grab even an inch of land of any country," he said. "We want to manufacture BrahMos on Indian soil so that no country has the audacity to cast an evil eye on India," Singh stated.

"India should have nuclear deterrents so that no country in the world can attack us, and we have shown this," the Defence Minister said after laying the foundation stone of the Defence Technologies and Test Centre and the BrahMos Manufacturing Centre.

"There is a neighbouring country. It got separated from India sometime back. I don't know why its intentions vis-a-vis India are always bad. It committed acts of terrorism in Uri and Pulwama," the defence minister said, referring to Pakistan.

Talking about India's retaliation to terror attacks, he said, "And then our prime minister took a decision, and we went to the soil of that country and destroyed terrorist hideouts, and when there was a need for airstrikes, we did that successfully. We gave the message that if somebody dares to cast an evil eye on us, then not just on this side of the border, but we can go to the other side and hit them. This is India's strength,"

In September 2016 and February 2019, India carried out cross-border strikes in response to terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, "The stand of the country is clear, and it does take security lightly. This is the new India, which does not provoke first, but also does not spare anyone who provokes it."

The defence minister praised him for expediting land acquisition for the projects they inaugurated. "When I spoke to Yogiji and expressed the desire to establish this project, he did not take a second and said that land will be made available at the earliest. I express my thanks that the chief minister for making 200 acre of land available in just one and a half months," he said. PTI