PM Narendra Modi urged a firm reaction to terrorism and opposed attempts to defend it on one pretext or another. He also cautioned that terrorists had benefited from the international community's ongoing failure to define what defines terrorism.
“Now, the world is also realising how big a challenge terrorism is. Wherever terrorism strikes, for whatever reason and in whatever form, it is against humanity. In such a scenario, we all will have to be extremely stringent all the time regarding terrorism,” Modi said, his strong statement also being interpreted as a rejection of the “root cause” alibi often proferred to support and rationalise acts of terrorism.
“This is the time for peace and brotherhood, a time to move together, a time to move forward together. This is the time for growth and well-being. We have to overcome the global trust deficit and move forward on human-centric thinking,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister specifically mentioned the Hamas attack on Israel, which he had previously described as a terrorist act, when speaking during the opening session of the ninth G20 Parliamentary Speakers' Summit (P20) in New Delhi.
In his speech, Prime Minister Modi alluded to the December 2001 Islamist attack on Parliament and seemed to express India's resentment that the world had taken so long to acknowledge the anguish it had endured at the hands of terrorists supported by Pakistan.
“As you know, Bharat has been facing cross-border terrorism for decades. Terrorists have killed thousands of innocent people in Bharat, terrorists have also targeted our Parliament. And you will be shocked to know that Parliament was in session at that time. Terrorists had planned to take MPs hostage and to kill them. Bharat has reached here today after dealing with such terrorist incidents,” he said.