Full Text of Shri Narendra Modi's speech at Ex- Servicemen's Rally, Rewari September 15, 2013

Bharat Mata ki Jai..!

This voice needs to reach out to the soldiers, who are guarding our borders…

Bharat Mata ki Jai..!

Bharat Mata ki Jai..!

Former Chief of the Army Staff, honourable Gen. V. K. Singh ji, all the senior leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party, All the retired officers present on stage who brought honour to the nation and did not care about themselves for us to live happily without fear, and all the retired soldiers of Indian army present here in such a huge number..!

I consider it to be a precious moment of my life as I have got fortunate enough to be present amongst retired officers and soldiers of Indian army. This land has always created a centenary of martyrdom, then whether it was the war of Rijhangla, of Trishoor or of Kargil..! No one can imagine, this land is of such bravemen and heroes..!In the battle of 1857, TulaRam was a proud name, the name that brought down British emipre plaguing; it was a name from this land. So when I have come to such a land of the heroes, have come amidst a huge number of armymen, then as a small soldier of this nation, as a child of this country, I will firstly bow down to these heroes..!

Friends, sacrificing your life for the nation, wishing every moment to die for the country, to be a martyr, it is no less than the lives of saints and so I bow down to all of you< i feel proud to be with you and I will not only salute to those who are present here. I bow down to every retired army person, very soldier in every corner of this nation; I bow down to all of them..!

Friends, today when I have come here amongst you, I got to hear a good news in the morning.Like when in Europe there's a news that next week they will have a sunny day, then they become happy beforehand becausee they do not get to see sunny days often. Friends, ven we are not gettingg to hear good news in our nation. It's almost a decade of us getting to hear only news of despair, of evil, of defeat and now we are fed up of such news, we have lost our hopes. In such a time any good news boosts our moral. I congratulate the scientists of this country, I compliment the scientific metal of India, who have succesfully tested Agni-5 today and for this I thank and congratulate the scientist community of this nation from the bottom of my heart..! 

Friends, two days back I was assigned with a special responsibility by the Bharatiya Janata Party. In a man's life, a few incidences are very interseting, but Friends, I want to admit this publically that the thrill that I can feel here, I did not feel it when that announcement of the post was being made. And this is result of the emotions that were there in me since my childhood..! Friends today I want to share a bit of my life. I was a student of class 4, and belonged to a poor family and never got to see even two rupees at once. But I got to see an advertisement in a newspaper in library that near Jamnagar, Gujarat, in Balachchadi, there's an army school and those who want to get admission should write to them. Friends, in class 4, I arranged 2 rupees and with those 2 rupees I went to post office. For the first time in life I saw a post office, I took help from the post master of that post office and with his help I money ordered the JamNagar Army School and asked them for the prospectus. At that time, it used to be of 2 rupees. At that age, I used to feel that to serve the nation means to join army, and this thought completely overpowered me. I never heard it from anyone, but I used to think like that. The prospectus arrived; I took help from a teacher, filled it and sent it..! Then I had to go for the test, and I needed money for the ticket. I told my father that I want to go to such school, and they have an entrance exam, I need some money for going there. My father said that, son this we can not afford, you compltete your studies from the village itself..! That dream of mine was shattered, I could not go, but I always had it in my mind that I wanted to go to army school to join the army, but I could not. This is the same Army school of Balachchadi, Jamnagar from where your chief minister Sri Hudda Ji has completed his education. He had tasted the salt of Gujarat for long..!

Friends, thereafter the battle of 1962 took place, and that battle shook every citizen of independent India. I was in class 6 or 7. Mehsaana station was at some distance from my village, but we got to know that the soldiers who are going to the battlefield are passing from this railway station. Some social organizations orgainsed snacks and bands there for the moral boosting of the soldiers. I read this in newspaper, so I too went to Mehsaana without informing my father, and in those days of the war, at such an early age, I used to serve tea and snacks to the soldiers, I used to touch their feet, and this continued for quite some time. I had a soft corner for it simnce childhood, but never got an opportunity and benefit of it. Coincidently, after 1995, I got to work for B.J.P. in Haryana, Himachal, Chandigarh, Punjab, Jammu Kashmir and there I got chance to visit the catonment, to talk to the officers, to visit ex-armymens and in a way the soldiers became a part of my extended family. I was having a new experiencee and becausee of that state of mind, today when I am here amongst you, I feel pride. The emotions, the pride that I have in my heart for the soldiers, they come to light whenever they get a chance.Friends, this is probably some sign from the God, otherwie this rally was decided long back. My coming on 15th to Rewadi was pre-decided. How was I to know that on 13th, such an important announcement will be made, and after that the first programme that I have is the one that is so close to my heart, where I will be amongst the ex-servicemen..! It is definitely some sign of the God..!

Friends, I have worked a lot in Haryana. I am familiar with every nook and corner of this place. I used to see the impact of Swami Dayanand Saraswati here; there was not probably even one family who was untouched by his effect..! And the major reason of the respect and honour that I used to get in Haryana came just from the fact that I belonged to the land of Swami Dayanand Saraswati..! There is very high influence of Arya Samaj here, that culture gushes here and it's touching my heart. Friends, at the time of emergency, Morarji Desai were jailed, and he was kept in a jail here at Haryana, that too was a connection established with Gujarat. Friends, in Haryana I got an opportunity to work nearly with Choudhry Devilal, Choudhry Bansilal and Atal Ji. I did a last rally here in Rewari itself with Atal Ji. But Friends, today's scene is completely different. No camera has enough capacity to capture the strength of this scene in it..! No one's eyes have enough consciousness to see to the distance which I am seeing right now. Uncountable heads is all what I can see. What a scene my Friends..! Friends, this is a cry demanding change from the land of Haryana. It is the land of Haryana that has challenged the regime of Delhi..!

Friends, Sri Krishna came and settled in Dwarka, but the connection with the land of Haryana, with the land of Kurukshetra, the message of Geeta to the world by Sri Krishna, is the message of motivation to the world for thousands of years..! Friends, in entire world no one can even think of such knowledge being delivered in a battlefield. When the armies are ready to march, the swords are blood thirsty, the game of life and death is scheduled, and at such time the Geeta could be narrated, it is a matter of research for the psychologists of the world..! What would have been the mental state of Sri Krishna at the time of war, how confident was he about the victory, how much was he sure on the strategies of the war and how much the human values would have meant to his heart, to deliver the message of Geeta at that time..! Friends, while standing at the battlefield, at that time the person who leads and direct, it's his potential that he should be confident to win, he requires potential, he requires strategic skills and the desire to himself lead at the front and then only a battle is won.

Friends, only one facet of our army comes in front of people that they are dressed in uniforms, they are deployed on the borders and they are capable of teaching a lesson to the enemy. We have seen them in just this one form. But we are proud of the army of this nation that as strongly they deal with the enemies, they are equally sensitive when at the time of adversities it comes to take care of the people of this nation. This is an amazing training, Friends..! The splendid job that the army did at the time of Gujarat earthquake in 2001, I can not ever forget that. Gujarat was under the death blanket, and then came the men of the Indian army, many survivors were buried under the rubble, there was no gap between life and death and the army men came like angels to the aid of people of Gujarat, they gave this message of humanity..! Friends, recently Uttarakhand faced such a horrifying crisis. Tourists from every corner of this nation were trapped, no one knew if they will return home or not and at that time, putting their lives at stake, our army men strived to take them to safe places in helicopters, and they were working day and night to do that and not in the battlefield, not by the bullets of enemies, but serving the sufferers of Uttarakhand, serving the tourists, our soldiers gave their lives..! Friends, I bow down to those army men who gave their lives serving the tourists, I salute them and I am proud of their martyrdom..!

But Friends, when our country was singing the tunes of the courage of our army, every person of this country who are connected to the Ganga, Kedar, when they were singing of this great sacrifice, this hard work, at that time on the other hand, the Pakistani soldiers came and killed our soldiers who were guarding our borders, and look at the irony, the Defence Minister of India says in the Parliament that someone else came wearing the uniforms of Pakistani army..! How much hurt the families of those martyrs would feel, how much the lakhs of the army men guarding our borders would be feeling, how much the 125 crore countrymen would be hurt..! But Friends, the regime ruling in Delhi they are not bothered about this hurt..! Friends, not only this, the heights of shamelessness is when the elected representative of people, person sitting in the cabinet, pass a statement that people join army to die only..! There can not be a worse behaviour, no other party would have ever disrespected the army men this way, no political leader would have thought of doing that…! If you can not shed tears, don’t do so, you are stone hearted, remain that way but atleast don’t disrespect the soldiers who live and die for my country. There is a limit of shamelessness Friends and the reason of it is that the safety and the safe keepers of the nation are not their priority..!Friends, today also when the time of Deepawali comes, people celebrate it in different manners. If I get a chance to celebrate Diwali, even today also I go to the border and celebrate with them, I share their happiness and pains..!

Pakistan is adjacent to the border of Gujarat. We got independence long back, but drinking water is still availed there through camels, almost 800 camels were deputed for this task of water supply. When I went there and saw the problem of drinking water, we arranged water from the east of Gujarat and laid 700 km long pipelines and fresh water of Narmada is now supplied to the last point of Indian border..! Friends, this is not done because we have budget, or we have the technology to lay the pipes but it's done because of the sense of respect and honour that we have for the soldiers deputed on the border, this respect makes us do this and make their needs a priority to us..! The battle of 1965 took place in our land and we did not have any memorial for the martyrs..! I will proudly give this information to all the officers that we built a memorial of heroic martyrs in their honour at the Pakistan border, dedicated it to the nation and have also mentioned it on our tourist map. And I request the youngsters of the nation that whenever you get a chance to visit that area, please visit that war memorial and bow down to it, it will fill you with consciousness and culture..!

Friends, in what condition are the policies of this nation today..! Everyday, we are surrounded by dangers. Pakistan is not putting an end to its activities, China keeps threatening us often, it intrudes our land..! Not only this, it is trying to bar down the waters of Brahmaputra, to capture Arunachal Pradesh from us..! Is it happening because of the weakness of our army friends..? Are the neighboring countries troubling us because the army is not capable..? Friends, problem is not on the border, the problem is in Delhi, and thus we will have to find its solution also in Delhi only..! Till the time we do not have an efficient, patriot and a government dedicated to safety of every Indian citizen in Delhi, it does not matter how capable our defence forces are, how modern warfare equipments we have, we will not be able to guarantee the security..! Friends, the number of soldiers that India has lost in terrorist attacks, of Maoist attacks and of disruptive powers, it is much higher than the number of soldiers that we have lost in the battleground after independence..!

Friends, United Nations was formed to protect the world from wars. The U.N.O. is trying to fulfill it responsibility so that the third world war does not happen. They must be feeling that it's been so many years, but the condition of third world war has not arisen..! But today I want to say this publically that UNO should not feel proud because now the form, the face and the method of war has changed, and because of it the more countries and more people are suffering in the world than what were suffering at the time of first and second world war, by means of proxy war, and the name of this war is terrorism, Maoism..! And thus it is need of the hour that the entire world should have a public opinion against terrorism, against Maoism, against violence. If India has a capable leadership than having the world's support against terrorism, Maoism and violence will not be very tough.

Friends, today when I have come to the land of Haryana, I like to recall the days of Atal Ji's and Advani Ji's governance. This is because there was an especiality of Atal Ji's foreign policy that all the time we were mongering over the issue of Kashmir, everyday there were debates on this issue. It was the result of Atal Ji's diplomacy that the entire world was forced to discuss terrorism. The entire world was divided in halves; one half was of those who believed in humanity, while the other half believed in terrorism, who bred terrorists. An because of it the world stopped listening to Pakistan and no one used to hear to them..! But Friends in last nine years, the despise that the world should feel towards terrorism, it’s missing, and some countries are mocking humanity. The countries who claim to be the leaders, they are mocking humanity because they like to discuss selective terrorism in accordance with their national politics. We can not be selective when it comes to terrorism, terrorism is an enemy of humanity, violence pulls humanity to its grave and thus it is important for the world peace, for welfare of poor nations and for development of the youth that all the humanitarian powers come together..!

Friends, Pakistan has recently got a democratically elected government. There was a hope that after it coming to power that they will come ahead as a friendly state setting aside the politics of attacking India. But the manner in which our soldiers were murdered at the border, it states that their intentions are not good. I want to clearly state to the governance of Pakistan that whether it is India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, if we have to fight, then we should fight against poverty, we should fight against illiteracy, we should fight against superstitions..! I want to say this to my friends in Pakistan that this character of conceiving weapons and artilleries has done no good to you in last 60 years. The regime of Pakistan needs to understand that if for 10 years, you do not let terrorists flourish on your land, do not protect them and do not let your land become a breeding ground for them, and you will see that Pakistan will progress much more than its progress all together in last 60 years, the Pakistani youth will be benefitted, Pakistan will come out of poverty. Not only this because of this war mongering mindset of Pakistan, because of their terrorist activities, they have change India also into a war field. Earlier wars used to happen at the borders, between the soldiers, they used to fight, they used to win or lose, but now when you could not defeat the Indian army then you have started this game of killing innocents..! By killing the innocents, through these terrorists who have come from Pakistan, cross border terrorism can not do good for India, for Pakistan or for Bangladesh. And thus Friends I want to tell this to Pakistan in clear terms that even if you were formed because of Anti-India politics, but your life can not be based on Anti-India politics, you can not develop through Anti-India politics..! For your good, for welfare of your youth, take back on the wrong way that you have walked on for 60 years, and let us all together fight against poverty, illiteracy, superstitions and give message of peace to the world from the land of Mahatma Gandhi..!

Friends, the game of vote bank politics has become so ugly in our nation, every corner has become a prey of vote bank politics, the society has been demolished in pieces. And those who are trying to break the society in bits and pieces under the umbrella of secularism for the sake of vote bank politics, I would like to say to those politicians and those intellectuals that if you want to see the real secularism, then please look at our defence forces..! If we politicians want to learn secularism, then we can learn it from our forces..! Our forces working on land, in air and water..! The way they have respect for all the creeds, the way all of them are working together just to serve the mother nation, there can not be a better example of secularism. I salute our defence forces which in the real senses have maintained the pride and glory of secularism in India and have made this nation proud. I compliment them from the bottom of my heart..! Friends, let us have a look at the independence war of 1857..! Rao Tularam was a fighter in that war..! in the revolt of 1857, both Hindus and Muslims were there..! The revolt of 1857 is also an example of secularism that whether we belong to whatever religion or creed, they all fought together. This example is still lived by our forces..! For the first time, the politicians hungry to rule, the politicians who are involved in the politics of vote bank, have blotted this great character of Indian army. For the first time under the Sachar Committee the resolution of counting the number of Hindus and Muslims was passed. These people have committed sin. The Indian Army which is just dedicated to the service of this nation, which is living with the tradition of respecting every creed, the politicians of Delhi are committing the sin of colouring this great institution in the dirty politics of religion and creed..! I salute those heroes of the defence forces who gave a blunt reply to the politicians in Delhi that no one can change the character of the army, no one challenge their secularism. They refused to let the counting in the defence forces happen on the basis of religion, each of our servicemen is a son of India..! Friends, our army men have done a great job, but soldiers, retired servicemen please do not forget that they tried to bring a divide in you.

Friends, if the country is capable, neither China can raise its brow on us, nor Pakistan can trouble us the way they do and thus, we need to realize the dream of a strong government, of a strong leadership, of a strong army and a strong nation..!Friends, today because of the neglect of the military in the country, due to habit to degrade the glory of military, due to ignorance of the opportunities of honouring the military, the youth does not show interest to join army. This is a great challenge for any nation. At the top level in the army, 40% posts of officers are vacant today. Friends it is essential that the educated and intelligent youth of the nation joins our defence forces. Now more than fighting from the borders, the wars will be fought through technology, there will be cyber wars, and there we would need dynamic, energetic and intelligent youth. We need to modernize the army, we have to connect the vibrant youth if the nation to the defence forces and in that direction the Delhi government will have to create an atmosphere of trust. It needs to create an environment that joining army should be a matter of pride and then this will happen..!

Friends, our former soldiers have to wander in the hour of need, of illness. Our soldiers, our modern age Dadhichis, who lost their hands, legs, eyes in the battlefield, who sacrificed themselves on the mother nation. If they have to beg for aid in the hospitals, at the railway stations, Friends there can not be anything worse that I can imagine. This is a matter of concern and responsibility for us and we have to change these circumstances. Who stops our former soldiers to live with honour and self respect, and their genuine demands getting fulfilled? We have been hearing about one rank, one pension since many years, what is the problem..? Today I publically demand from the Government of India on behalf of the army men and ex-service men of this country, to publish a white paper on the status of 'one rank, one pension' scheme. And Friends, I am sure that if in 2004, Vajpayee Ji would have formed government, then today this problem of one rank one pension would not have been complicated..! Friends, people would have sat together and Atal Ji would have found a solution to this problem, and would have given our former servicemen live with pride and honour.

Friends, there are many such areas in our nation, where we can utilize the potential of our ex-army men and could have used their discipline and work culture for the benefit of the nation. Now let us see, the fire brigade, every town of India has a fire brigade. Have we ever thought that if we recruit our retired servicemen in the fire brigade, incidence of fire would never take place in this country..! We are not ready to think..! Friends our country is not being able to make a place in the olympics. One of our friends has made us proud in the Olympics, won medal in the Olympics, an army man, Rajyavardhan Rathore, he is amongst us..! The army men live in cantonment. If the country decides to give special sports training to harness the skills of these army men, then wouldn’t we be able to excel in Olympics..? We would be friends, but there should be someone to think like that..! Either they have no time to think or God has given them a vacuum and thus they are not capable of any new thought. Friends when I came to Gujarat, there used to be huge power theft in the state. What we did was, we constituted a team of ex-servicemen. We recruited almost 1000 ex-servicemen, provided them with a uniform and gave them the responsibility to prevent the theft. Friends, we did not even face a need of any legal proceeding. Just looking at the army uniform, there was a such a moral impact that the thieves thought that an army man has come and I am stealing. The thefts came to an end Friends. Our electricity field got strengthened because of 1000 army men. Friends, what I mean to say is that even today there's a respect towards this uniform in our nation, and we use it in the right manner, then we will get required results, and we should strive in that direction only Friends.

 I also want to bring your attention on one more subject. The budget of the forces is in lakhs of crores of rupees, which is mainly spent on importing armaments. It's a country of 125 crore people, we have scientists with the caliber to launch Agni missiles, but even if we need the smallest components, we have to get it from foreign. Whose interest is it..? And the rulers sitting in Delhi are more interested in knowing the release of next tender, than knowing about the condition of the forces, because tenders are business of millions, why will they even be concerned about these small issues..! Friends, and for this,we should be self dependent in the armaments that our nation needs for the wars. Not only this, we are a country of 125 people, with so many young minds, engineers and technology we should dream that in the coming era, the nations of the world will buy warfare from us. We should dream of exporting warfare..! This capability is not difficult. Friends, mine is a small state, but we have started courses of developing defence equipments in colleges for our engineering students. We have right now started working on development of human resource. We should motivate Indian companies, and by motivating them we should develop what Indian army needs here in India, for that we spend accordingly then I am sure Friends, there will be rise of a new power in India..! And we should give priority to defence offset, we should emphasize on production in our nation, we should build strategies, we should give level field to the imported and manufactured in India goods..! We show our might in research, but what is the condition, Friends..? When we take warfare from a foreign nation, then whenever there is a war, and if the policies of that nation from which we avail these arms from are against us, then even after paying in billions and trillions, they stop supplying at the time of the need. India has faced this problem in the past. The supply of warfare stopped at the time of need, though we have paid but the foreign policy of that nation is not in favour, thus it's stopped. Friends, if we keep buying from foreign, and if tomorrow we enter in a major war, and the nations who are supplying us stop doing so, then what will happen to us, have you ever thought of it..? And thus we should have our own strength, our own capability and for this we should utilize the youth power of this nation..!

Friends, there are many of us who could not enter the armed services to serve the safety of this nation, but Friends, there is one more opportunity that we get in our life to serve the nation and that opportunity is the right to vote..! Today I want to say to the youth of the nation. When a kid goes to school for the first time, then there is an environment of joy and happiness in the house, when it is the first birthday of the kid, then there is an atmosphere of joy in the house, when someone's son or daughter get married, there's a celebration, but the constitution of India gives us a great gift, and when we get it we do not even know the power of it..! Friends, when at the age of 18 we get a right to vote, it is the biggest gift given to us by the constitution of India and we should be proud of it..! There should be an atmosphere that when someone gets 18 years of age, we should congratulate them..! And I want to say to the youth of the nation that you want to make India a capable nation, don't you..? You want the nation to be strong? You want a strong government in Delhi..? Then check whether you have the right to vote or not..? Whether your name is there in voter's list or not, no one in your friends, relatives, neighbors who is of 18 years should be left. Will you do this..? Will you make people voters..? This is a holy task, every party should do it, every citizen should do it..! And I request the former servicemen that for solution of your problems, connect to the youth of the nation, start the campaign to make them voters, and you will see that we will evolve with a new strength..!

Friends, I need a help for one more thing. Will everyone help us..? Friends, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel did the task of bringing this nation together. He brought together the various kingdoms and gave India its present form. But from last many years, the iron man who worked for unity of this nation has been forgotten..! Sardar Patel was iron a farmer, we should not forget that. He did the amazing job of connecting the farmers with the independence movement. He was iron man and he has contributed greatly to the unity of the nation. And thus we wish to build a huge statue of Sardar Patel as a memorial in his name at the place where he was born. And what kind of statue, Let me tell you..! Today the tallest statue in the world is ‘Statue of Liberty’ in America. We want to build ‘Statue of Unity’, which would be double the size of ‘Statue of Liberty’..! It is our dream is to build world's tallest statue. But, we want to bring the whole country together for that. Sardar Patel was iron man, so we need iron, he worked for unity so we want iron from every village. But if in any village there is a cannon, sword and they say that take it Modi Ji. The statue can be built in just one cannon that we do not need. We do not need sword's iron or gun's iron. We want iron, but which ones, the iron that has been used by farmers in their fields in form of tools. Not from every farmer but a small piece of 200-300 grams from every village. And the memorial that would be built by melting this iron, it would be a part of your village, one such memorial of unity..! After 31st October, someone will definitely come to you, will read this message to you and from your entire village we will take a small tool of a farmer, and you will contribute in this memorial of unity, in the highest memorial of the world..!

Friends, I am highly thankful to the former Army Chief for coming to this program and boosting the morale of ex-servicemen..! All the former Army Officials and all of you, who have come here in such a huge number, I once again bow down to you and thank you all..!

Tie both your fist and say,

Bharat Mata ki Jai..!

Not one but both, say with all your strength,

Bharat Mata ki Jai..! Bharat Mata ki Jai..!

Vande Mataram..! Vande Mataram..!

(SOURCE : TWITTER A/C OF CDR CHANDRA SEKHAR (RETD)