From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Alike many years even during his tenure as the Gujarat chief minister, Prime Minister Modi on Monday celebrated Diwali with the soldiers in Kargil, hailing it as a “festival for end of terror” made possible by Kargil and describing them as “all of you been my family for years now.”
“Our Army in Kargil crushed the fountainhead of terror as people till date remember Diwali of victory the country celebrated,” he said in an interaction with the members of the Armed Forces in Kargil.
“The forces are the pillar of India’s security. From this victorious land of Kargil, I wish the countrymen and the world a very happy Diwali. There has not been a single war with Pakistan where Kargil has not hoisted the flag of victory. The meaning of Diwali is end of Atank (terror) and Kargil made it possible,” he said.
The Prime Minister has been celebrating the festival with soldiers for several years now.
In 2019, he celebrated Diwali with soldiers in the Rajouri district along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. He had exchanged Diwali greetings with the Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel at Pathankot Air Force Station.
In 2018, Prime Minister Modi had celebrated Diwali with jawans of the Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), at Harsil in Uttarakhand. Following that he had offered prayers at the Kedarnath shrine. In 2017, the Prime Minister celebrated the festival of light with army soldiers and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in the Gurez Valley of Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora District.
In 2016, the PM went to Himachal Pradesh to celebrate the festival with Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel at an outpost.
He visited the Punjab border to celebrate Diwali with soldiers in 2015. In 2014, Prime Minister Modi spent Diwali in Siachen with soldiers. Notably, PM Modi has been visiting soldiers on Diwali, ever since he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
