The central government will gouge out the eyes of
the country’s enemy if it looks at India with a crooked eye, Defence Minister
Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.

Speaking at an election rally in Aldona village, 20
km from Panaji, Parrikar said Goans should be proud of the fact that one of
their own had slapped the enemy, which was eyeballing India in the past, across
the cheeks.

“Over the last three days the borders are quiet
because if we are fired upon once we fire twice. Tit for tat. Stone for a
brick. When they realised this, they came to us and said enough. We do not want
to wage war but anyone who has set a crooked eye on the country, then this
government has the strength to gouge out their eyes and put them in their
hands,” Parrikar told the rally.

“When I went to the centre, you can say with
pride to the entire country, that one of our own went there and slapped the
enemy which in the past was glaring at us, four times across its cheeks,”
Parrikar said.

The former Goa Chief Minister also recalled words of
wisdom from his mother, which he said he recalls often, especially when dealing
with Pakistan.

“If you go to hunt hares in a forest be
prepared to fight a tiger, my mother used to tell me. I have not forgotten what
she told me when I was a child… Our country’s border is safe, the country’s
economic backbone is secure. This, people have realised after
demonetisation,” Parrikar said.

Parrikar also said that in India’s commercial
capital Mumbai, supari (underworld slang for contract killing), extortion has
stopped and the crime graph has dipped after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
demonetisation decision.

“Supari has stopped, extortion has stopped,
because if one goes to a builder and says, if you don’t give me khokha
(underworld slang for Rs 1 crore) then I will come after you, the builder
simply gives them a khokha (also means box in Hindi),” the Defence
Minister said.
“Because a khokha has actually become a khokha. There is no
value for those notes to giver and taker. So extortion has stopped,” he
said.

“Even drug money, drug movement in Mumbai has
collapsed. Overall, in a metropolis like Mumbai demonetisation has reduced the
crime graph,” Parrikar said.