Lucknow: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said it was the prerogative of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to invite a party to form a government.
The comments came after BJP's Devendra Fadnavis and NCP leader Ajit Pawar took oath as the Maharashtra chief minister and deputy chief minister, respectively, on Saturday. The unexpected development took place a day after Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray emerged as the Sena-NCP-Congress' consensus candidate for the top post.
"At this point of time in this programme, I do not wish to make any political statement. It was the prerogative of the governor," Singh said at an event in Lucknow.
"The governor invited the person (to form the government) after he was satisfied."
At the event, Singh paid tributes to ex-servicemen and their families in Lucknow and said the country is proud of them.
The defence minister visited various stalls set up at the stadium and also interacted with former servicemen and their widows.
He said Uttar Pradesh was the birthplace of war heroes and bravehearts like Abdul Hameed and Manoj Pandey.
"It is a matter of pride for us. The entire nation will remain indebted to the Army jawans who laid down their lives in defence of the country. We cannot free ourselves from this debt by extending any amount of facilities their families."
The defence minister on this occasion also said that the country is touching heights today, and the biggest contribution is of the Army and jawans. "If the country is not secured, then its development is not possible," he said.
He also expressed happiness that youths are eager to join the armed forces, and "every part of the country I visit, there is a request that recruitment camps for Army should be organised. This despite the fact that after joining one may have face bullets, bombs and terrorists," he said.
Elaborating on why youths wants to join the Army, the Singh said, "There is a feeling of 'swabhimaan' (self-respect). Self-respect is personal, family-oriented, social and even nationalistic. Personal self-respect is aroused when someone hurls abuses at you, and you are ready to fight back. If abuses are hurled at your family, then family-oriented self-respect is aroused."
"But, if any power in the world tries to cast an evil eye on the borders of India, then, at that point of time, the self-respect that is aroused among the countrymen is nationalistic self-respect, and not personal or family-oriented," he said.
"It is with this nationalistic self-respect that they (youths) join the Army," the minister added.
Singh said that during the freedom struggle, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Khudiram Bose and Ashfaqullah Khan were inspired by nationalistic self-respect due to which they smilingly embraced capital punishment.
"Our government implemented One Rank, One Pension after a few months of forming the government. The issue had been lingering for nearly 30-40 years," he said.
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