This isn’t 1-week battle, we need decisive win: Jaitley

NEW DELHI: The country is “extremely angry” over the terror attack in Pulwama and the government will use all instruments to tackle a rogue state like Pakistan that has failed to act against terrorists in its territory, finance minister Arun Jaitley said.

Speaking at the Economic Times Global Business Summit here on Friday, Jaitley said, “Pakistan is riding a tiger and the tiger never spares its own riders… This is not a one-week battle, it has to be undertaken on various fronts... We have to act in a manner that this battle has to be decisively won by us.”

'Why need proof when terror group has owned up?'

Criticising Pakistan PM Imran Khan for demanding proof in the Pulwama attack, finance minister Arun Jaitley, said, “The head of the government says, ‘Give me actionable intelligence’. You need actionable intelligence if it is a blind offence, but here is a man sitting in your own country who owned up to the offence. So when there is a confession... You have people sitting in your own country and admitting to the offence and saying that ‘yes, we have done it’ and taking credit for it.” He added that the battle against terrorism sourced from Pakistan has to be decisively won.

Jaitley’s statement comes a week after the Cabinet Committee on Security decided to withdraw the most-favoured-nation state status granted to Pakistan and raised import duties to 200%. In addition, several other steps have been taken, including those at the United Nations, to isolate Pakistan.

The finance minister also suggested India had much more financial muscle in any confrontation with Pakistan, which had fared poorly on economic and human development indices. Describing Pakistan as a “rogue state” in the neighbourhood, he said there was no need to provide any evidence when terror groups based there had taken responsibility.

Jaitley also slammed political opponents for raising “fake issues”, including the controversy of electronic voting machines, privacy concerns around Aadhaar and alleged loan waiver for 15 large corporate houses.

Asked about the charge of the Modi government’s attack on institutions, he said: “It is completely fake issue. With the judiciary the only issue was within the constitutional framework. They refer several names for the appointment of judges and under the constitutional framework, the government can give its opinion in case of certain people some cases can be sent back. We exercised that right.”