Our arms will be silent if those on other side remain quiet too: Rajnath
India’s weapons will remain silent as long as the arms on the other side are quiet, union home minister Rajnath Singh said Friday while addressing Border Security Force personnel posted in Rajasthan’s Bikaner along the border with Pakistan.
“India is a peace-loving country and we wish our weaponry remains cool as long as possible,” Singh said in his address to jawans and their families after performing ‘shastra puja’ (a ritualistic worship of weapons traditionally performed on Dussehra) at the BSF headquarters in Bikaner.
Singh was in Bikaner on a twoday visit to celebrate Dussehra with BSF jawans, perhaps for the first time a union home minister has conducted ‘shastra puja’ along the Indo-Pak border.
Singh said the government was working to ensure a “respectable package” for the martyrs who sacrificed their life guarding the country. “It has been our constant effort to ensure that a family of a martyr who is killed in action does not get a compensation amount less than a crore,” he said. “I am even ready to spread my hands and go door to door to seek funds.”
Lauding the jawans’ sense of duty, Singh said, “The BSF personnel are not only deployed for guarding our borders but they also render a variety of internal security tasks.”
He attended a ‘bada khana’ (feast with the jawans) on Thursday night and interacted with them and their families to know their difficulties. In his speech, Singh told the jawans that the government has introduced a Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) as a pilot project to eliminate the need for a soldier to stand guard round-the-clock to protect the borders.
“CIBMS was launched in September in Jammu and such gadgetry will be deployed along our border with Pakistan and Bangladesh in future,” he said. “This facility will help the jawans perform a less stressful and comfortable duty.”
Singh also visited forward border outpost Satpal in Khajuwala area to assess border security and interact with jawans. He was accompanied by BSF director general Rajinikant Mishra, ADG (western command) Kamal Nayan Choubey and Rajasthan Frontier inspector general Anil Paliwal.
DUSSEHRA VISIT Meets BSF jawans, families at Bikaner HQ for ‘shastra puja’ BIKANER: