GAVE A BEFITTING REPLY, BANNING APPS A DIGITAL STRIKE: PRASAD

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.

“Now you can hear about only two ‘Cs’ Coronavirus 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.

“When our PM is saying that the sacrifice of our jawans won’t go in vain, it has a meaning in terms of national security. Our government has the will to deliver. All of us are aware of the courage of our PM.” 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 the India-china war in which the country was defeated because of the superior Chinese war machine.

“For us, the privacy and protection of data of our countrymen are supreme. As IT minister, we decided to ban 59 apps to protect data. We won’t compromise on the issue of data security and national integration. India knows how to protect its borders and also knows how to carry out a digital strike,” the Union minister asserted.