Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday issued a stern warning to Pakistan from the ramparts of Red Fort on the occasion of 79th Independence Day. India, the prime minister said, has decided that it will not tolerate nuclear threats anymore.
“India has decided that it will not tolerate nuclear threats anymore, we won’t fall for any blackmail,” PM Narendra Modi said in his 12th consecutive address from the ramparts of Red Fort.
PM Modi’s statement came following back-to-back statements and threats by the Pakistani leadership against India. It started last week when Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir, during his US visit, threatened to plunge the region into a nuclear war if Islamabad faced an existential threat.
PM Narendra Modi addressed the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi after hoisting the national flag as part of official events.
This was Narendra Modi’s 12th consecutive Independence Day address as Prime Minister from Red Fort since 2024. Before Narendra Modi, country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the Tricolour 17 times. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi hoisted the national flag 16 times.
“India has now decided, blood and water will not flow together. The people have come to realize that the Indus Waters Treaty is unjust. Water from the Indus River system has been irrigating the lands of the enemy, while our own farmers have suffered. What kind of agreement is this that has caused such immense loss to our farmers for the past seven decades?,” PM Narendra Modi said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday claimed that any attempt to stop the flow of water into Pakistan is a violation of the Indus Waters Treaty and will be met with a “decisive response”.
The threat directed at India came a day after Pakistan’s former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari made similar comments, describing the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty as an attack on the Indus Valley Civilisation.
This is PM Narendra Modi’s first Independence Day address from Red Fort after Operation Sindoor – India’s precision strikes on terror camps in Pakistan in May this year, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April.
Narendra Modi said that the entire India and the world were shocked by the Pahalgam terror attack . “I am very proud that from the ramparts of the Red Fort, I am getting the opportunity to salute the heroes of Operation Sindoor. Our brave jawans punished the enemy beyond its imagination. On 22nd April, terrorists from across the border came to Pahalgam and killed people after asking their religion,” he said.
India has decided that it will not tolerate nuclear threats anymore, we won’t fall for any blackmail.
Operation Sindoor, Narendra Modi said, is the expression of that outrage. “After the 22nd, we gave a free hand to our armed forces. They decide the strategy, target and time. Our Forces did what had never been done for several decades. We entered hundreds of kilometres into the enemy soil and razed their terrorist HQ to the ground…Destruction in Pakistan is so massive that new revelations are being made every day and new information is coming out daily,” he said.