India to give befitting reply if anyone casts evil eye: Prasad

Calling ban on Chinese apps ‘digital strike’, Union Minister says New Delhi has the will to deliver

KOLKATA: Calling the ban on Chinese apps a ‘digital strike’, Union Communication and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said India wants peace but if someone casts an evil eye the country is capable of giving a befitting reply.

Hailing the ‘strong’ leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he asserted, if India lost 20 soldiers in the Galwan Valley border clash, the toll is double on the Chinese side. “Now you can hear about only two ‘Cs’ Coronaviris and China. We believe in peace and solve problems through discussion, but if somebody casts an evil eye on India, we will give a befitting reply. When people from China tried to create pressure on LAC, our soldiers

gave them a befitting reply... if our 20 jawans have sacrificed their lives, the toll is double on the Chinese side.

“You all must have noticed that they have not come out with any figure,” Prasad, also the Union law and justice

minister, told a virtual rally for the people of West Bengal. He said people will remember the retaliatory assault mounted by India after terrorist strikes in Uri and Pulwama. Prasad said the India of 2020 will neither “stop nor bow its head” before anyone. “It’s not the India of 1962,” he said, referring to Indo-China war in which the country was defeated because of superior Chinese war machine.

Insisting that India carried out a “digital strike” to protect the data of countrymen, Prasad sought to know why the TMC was opposing the ban on Chinese apps. Taking a dig at the Congress on the funding of the Gandhi family-run Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, he wondered what prompted the RGF to conduct a study in favour of a free trade agreement with China.

59 banned Chinese apps go off Google Play, Apple App Store The 59 Chinese apps banned by the government have been taken down from Google Play Store and Apple App Store in India, blocking their access to mobile phone users. Google said that it has temporarily blocked access to the banned apps on its India Play Store. Google spokesperson did not disclose details of the apps that Google had blocked. Similar action has been taken by the Apple App Store.

India of 2020 will neither ‘stop nor bow its head’ before anyone. It’s not the India of 1962 — Ravi Shankar Prasad, Communication and Information Technology Minister