'Modi has shown his 56-inch chest to Pak': Union minister tells BJP rally in Odisha

Baripada (Odisha) Union Minister Mansukh Laxmanbhai Mandaviya Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a "befitting" reply to Pakistan by bombing the JeM training centre at Balakot for the Pulwama terror strike and people should vote for him in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "Modi has shown his 56-inch chest to Pakistan," he said at the 'Vijay Sankalp Samabesh' organised by the BJP at Manatri in Mayurbhanj district.

"The people of India should remain with the man who works day in and day out with 56-inch chest. What has happened recently (the Balakot bombing) is possible only under the Modi government," Mandaviya, the Union minister of state for road transport and highways, said. "He (Modi) will never compromise with the pride of the nation... The country is safe in his hands," the minister said.

India in a pre-dawn attack on Tuesday bombed terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed's Balakot camp, its biggest training camp in Pakistan situated about 80 km from the Line of Control, officials said. In an oblique criticism of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the minister said Modi "never takes leave for relaxation in Italy like some other leaders".

There is also no corruption charge against the BJP government, he added. Referring to the 19-year-old Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha, he called upon the people to oust it in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

"As the welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not reaching the people of Odisha, they should remove Naveen Patnaik," Mandaviya said. Odisha will progress if a BJP government is formed in the state and Modi is elected prime minister for the second time, he said.

The BJP government is the "poor people's government", he said, adding "Modi can realise the pain of poor people and not Naveen 'babu', who has not seen poverty and villages".