Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Indian armed forces “made Pakistan kneel” and the world has seen what happens “when sindoor turns into gunpowder”.

At a public rally in Bikaner, Rajasthan, Modi praised the armed forces and said India’s response is a new form of justice and there will be no trade or talks with Pakistan now.

“The world and the enemies of the country have seen what happens when ‘sindoor’ turns into ‘barood’ (gunpowder),” he said in his emotional speech in Bikaner that borders Pakistan.

“Ab toh Modi ki naso mein lahu nahi garam sindoor beh raha hai (Not blood but hot sindoor flows in Modi’s veins),” the PM said.

Defining what he said were three “sutras” from Operation Sindoor, Modi said that three things are very clear – there will be a befitting reply for each terror attack; India will not be scared by threats of an atom bomb and India will view Pakistan’s “State and non-State actors” as one.

“If there is a terrorist attack on India, it will get a befitting reply. The time and methods will also be decided by our army and the conditions will also be ours. India is not going to be scared by the threat of atom bomb. Thirdly, we will not see the perpetrators of terror and the government patronising the terrorists separately. We will consider them as one,” he said in a stern message to Pakistan.

The PM stated that since Pakistan cannot engage in a direct conflict, indicating successive defeats it has faced in previous wars, it uses terrorists against India. Now the game of Pakistan of State and non-State actors will not work anymore.

Pakistan, he said, had tried to destroy the Nal air base in Bikaner, where he landed in the morning, but could not cause any damage to it due to the protection from our defence forces. On the contrary, he said, “No one knows when Pakistan’s Rahim Yar Khan air base will open again. It is in ICU. The attack has destroyed it”.

Reemphasising his decisive leadership, he recalled his public rally in Rajasthan’s Churu following the 2019 Balakot airstrike. “Saugandh mujhe is mitti ki, mein desh nahi jhukne dunga, mein desh nahi mitne dunga (he had taken a vow that he would not let the country down)“.

“Today, from the land of Rajasthan, I want to say to the countrymen that those who had set out to erase sindoor have been wiped out. Those who shed the blood of Hindustan have paid for every drop of it. Those who were proud of their weapons are now buried under a pile of rubble,” he said.

He said the response to April 22 Pahalgam terror attack was avenged by destroying nine terror camps in 22 minutes.

Published on May 22, 2025