Aishbagh Ramlila ground in Luckow this evening echoed with the sound of “Jai Sri Ram”. PM Narendra Modi today heated up the UP poll ground by breaking the tradition to attend Dussehra at Lucknow’s Aishbagh instead of Delhi.

This is his first public address after India’s surgical strikes across the Line of Control. He stated, “We are at a point now where those who support terror or allow it cannot go unpunished.”

“Terrorism is the biggest enemy of humanity … it knows no boundaries, it is bent only on destruction,” the PM said at Dussehra celebrations in Lucknow, where he watched the Ramlila which enacts Ravana’s defeat by Ram in the epic Ramayana to message that good triumphs over evil.

“If all of us keep our eyes open and pay close attention to the activities of terrorism, they will not succeed in their designs,” Modi said. “We see visuals of what terrorism is doing to Syria. It brings tears to one’s eyes. It gives us the conviction that there is no guarantee for the safety of humanity without defeating terrorism,” he added.

“We will not spare those who shelter terrorists,” he declared, in reference to Pakistan’s support for anti-India terrorist groups.

“Today is the International Day of the Girl Child. We should collectively work towards an India where there is no discrimination based on gender and where girls get all opportunities to shine,” Modi said.

Before the PM’s speech, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who is also the parliamentarian from Lucknow, told the audience, “The PM has proved to the world that India is not weak,” referring to the cross-border strikes.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has charged the government with disingenuously appropriating the army’s action in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir for self-aggrandizement. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is among those who have called for the government to share proof of the cross-border action against terrorists, which has been flatly denied by Pakistan as “fabricated.”