LUCKNOW: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the ongoing evacuation of Indians stranded in war-torn Ukraine had been made possible by “India’s rising power” on the global stage.
“India won’t spare any effort to bring home all its citizens from Ukraine. An empowered country is the need of the hour given the current situation in the world,” he said at an election rally in UP’s Sonbhadra.
Stressing the importance of reducing India’s reliance on other countries in every sphere possible, Modi said Operation Ganga to evacuate Indians still stuck in Ukraine had received an impetus with the deployment of Army and IAF teams, besides a delegation of four Union ministers to oversee the effort.
Amid allegations by the opposition that evacuation had been slow and haphazard, the PM questioned their commitment to make the country self-reliant. “Those who question the valour of the armed forces and ‘Make in India’ can’t make the country strong,” he said.
Modi highlighted the NDA government’s achievement of providing vaccines and ration for free to a large number of beneficiaries. “But the ghor parivarwadis (out-and-out dynasts) have been insulting India, especially UP,” he alleged.