Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh while addressing the public gathered in Lucknow on Sunday stated that India wanted to manufacture the BrahMos missiles not for attacking any country but to prevent the enemy forces from casting an evil eye on the safety and security of the country.

Rajnath Singh confirmed that the manufacture of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles was to protect India from external threats. The Defence Minister laid the foundation of a BrahMos missile manufacturing unit in Lucknow and stated that the BrahMos project was the proof of the defence cooperation existing between India and Russia.

Singh said, “The BrahMos missile and other weapons and defence equipment we are manufacturing are not to attack any other country. It has never been the character of India to attack any other country or grab even an inch of land of any country,” adding, “We want to manufacture BrahMos on Indian soil so that no country has the audacity to cast an evil eye on India,”

Rajnath Singh further mentioned the acts of terrorism committed by Pakistan against the nation. He said, “There is a neighbouring country. It got separated from India sometime back. I don’t know why its intentions vis-a-vis India are always bad. It committed acts of terrorism in Uri and Pulwama,”

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was also present at the event and announced the acquisition of 200 acres of land by the government for the project.

Notably, BrahMos is an Indo-Russian joint project that formed out of the association between the DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya resulting in the formation of the multinational defence corporation known as the Brahmos Aerospace. Brahmos missile got its name from the names of two rivers, that is the Brahmaputra in India and the Moskva from Russia. 

Recently, India successfully conducted the test-fire of the air version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile which marked a ‘major milestone’ in BrahMos development.

References:

opindia.com - OpIndia Staff