Mann Ki Baat: PM Modi invokes ‘zero tolerance’ doctrine as surgical strikes turn 10

The surgical strikes came weeks after the Uri attack of September 2016, in which 19 soldiers were killed at an Army base.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India today follows a “zero tolerance” policy against terrorism, while marking 10 years of the 2016 surgical strikes.

Recalling the Indian Army’s action across the Line of Control on September 28 and 29 in 2016, Modi said the strikes proved that “if terrorists dare to cast an evil eye on India, they will be met with a befitting response.” (X/@NarendraModi)

The prime minister made the remarks during the 138th episode of his monthly radio programme, Mann Ki Baat, aired a day before the 10th anniversary of the cross-border operation.

Recalling the Indian Army’s action across the Line of Control on September 28 and 29 in 2016, Modi said the strikes proved that “if terrorists dare to cast an evil eye on India, they will be met with a befitting response.” He called the operation a “decisive response” to years of terror attacks that India had endured.

The surgical strikes came weeks after the Uri attack of September 2016, in which 19 soldiers were killed at an Army base. Indian special forces crossed the LoC at night and struck terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, an operation the government has since held up as the moment India’s counter-terror posture changed from restraint to retaliation. Modi placed the strikes in a continuum stretching to the 2019 Balakot air strikes and this year’s Operation Sindoor, saying the last decade has “repeatedly” sent the same message to Pakistan.

Without naming any party, Modi said that in the past, “there used to be demands for action against Pakistan following every terror attack,” but such calls were “often not given due attention” as governments simply waited for time to pass. The remark is widely seen as directed at the Congress-led UPA governments that preceded the BJP’s 2014 return to power. The Congress has in the past demanded more public evidence of the 2016 strikes, a demand the Bharatiya Janata Party has repeatedly rejected as an attempt to drag the armed forces into politics.

Modi also recalled the September 13, 2008 serial blasts in Delhi and the 26/11 Mumbai attack weeks later, saying, “many innocent lives were lost.” He tied the anniversary to 25 years since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, noting that Indians made up the largest group of foreign victims after Americans, and said he had visited the World Trade Center memorial during his first US trip as prime minister in 2014.

On the ongoing national census, Modi said enumerators have recorded data for “over 320 million families” in the first phase, with work continuing in high-altitude areas of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttarakhand. He said more than 26 million citizens have already completed self-enumeration through the online portal, a process he said “takes about 15 to 20 minutes” and requires no document upload.

The Prime Minister paid tribute to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Ashok Singhal on his 100th birth anniversary, calling him someone who “dedicated his entire life to culture, society, and the nation.” Singhal, born in Agra on September 27, 1926, was credited by Modi with shaping the Ram Janmabhoomi movement that led to the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Modi returned to the “Somnath Swabhiman Parv,” marking a thousand years since Mahmud of Ghazni destroyed the Somnath temple in 1026. He noted that Gujarat’s Modhera Sun Temple, destroyed the same year, has since been rebuilt and now anchors India’s first fully solar-powered village, calling it proof of the country’s “resilience”.

He highlighted the “Nasha Mukt Yuva Abhiyan,” a 100-week anti-drug campaign involving volunteers from the MY Bharat platform and the National Service Scheme, and appealed to citizens ahead of the festive season: “If any youngster is drifting towards a harmful habit, talk to them.”

On wildlife conservation, Modi pointed to elephants returning to Assam’s Sonai Rupai sanctuary after encroached land was cleared, and a breeding programme that has lifted the state’s pygmy hog population to over 190 from an initial six.

Modi closed the broadcast by urging citizens to mark Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 through cleanliness drives, and thanked listeners for their contributions, saying, “Do continue to share such inspiring stories.