VELAGAPUDI: Education and IT minister Nara Lokesh has asserted that no amount of adversity, even in the form of “one hundred Pakistanis,” would affect India as the nation possesses a “missile” in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At the work relaunch event on Friday, Lokesh began his speech by chanting, “Amaravati Namah Namah”, twice.

“Amaravati is now unstoppable,” he declared, stressing that Andhra Pradesh has regained its momentum for inclusive and rapid growth.

Lokesh referred to recent provocations from Pakistan and asserted, “Even if 100 Pakistanis come together, they cannot remove a blade of grass from the Indian soil. PM Modi is our missile. One strike, and Pakistan will go missing from the world map.”

The minister said the previous government halted the development of Amaravati due to the YSRC leadership’s personal vendetta against Chandrababu Naidu. It wanted to kill the capital project, he said.

He recalled the sacrifices of farmers and women during the 1,631-day-long Amaravati movement. “From 8-year-old children to 80-year-old elders, all held flags and chanted ‘Jai Amaravati’. Farmers were chained, women were beaten. Yet, the spirit of Amaravati couldn’t be crushed,” he stated and paid homage to the 270 farmers who died during the agitation.

Lokesh said, “Amaravati is not a plant in your backyard to be uprooted at will. It is the people’s capital, etched in the hearts of Andhra’s citizens. It was Prime Minister Modi who laid the foundation stone of Amaravati, and no one has the courage to undo that.”

“From Polavaram to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Bhogapuram Airport to green energy projects in Prakasam, the Centre is backing AP’s growth with full force,” he stated.

Highlighting the central government’s historic decision to include caste data in the next Census exercise, Lokesh said this would empower the backward classes. “What others feared to do for decades, Modi ji did with boldness.”

He highlighted the strength of the “double engine sarkar”, a powerful combination of PM Modi at the Centre and CM Naidu in the state.

In just 10 months, he said, AP has signed MoUs worth Rs 8 lakh crore, which can generate 5 lakh jobs. Future investments include NTPC Green Energy in Vizag (Rs 1.85 lakh crore), Arcelor Mittal in Anakapalli (Rs 1.36 lakh crore) and BPCL in Ramayapatnam (Rs 97,000 crore). The government aims to create 20 lakh jobs over the next five years, he said.

Russia-Urkaine War: In a significant development that may affect the Russia-Ukraine peace talks, the United States has announced to pull out as a mediator saying that   America is not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings. The US had earlier said that it would stop mediating between the two warring nations if no progress is made soon. A State Department official indicated on Thursday that there is little progress made by the two nations to end bloodshed.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said, “We are not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings.” Bruce, however, said that the US is committed to helping the two countries reach a deal. “It is now between the two parties, and now — now is the time that they need to present and develop concrete ideas about how this conflict is going to end. It’s going to be up to them,” she said.

Earlier last week, US President Donald Trump has questioned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin’s willingness to stop the war and criticised recent missile strikes in Ukraine. Trump said after his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Vatican on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral, on Saturday.

Last week on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Russia said.  The meeting, which took place at the Kremlin, lasted three hours and was “constructive and very useful,” Yury Ushakov, a key Putin aide who was at the talks, told reporters.

The Russia-Ukraine war has entered its third year with both nations continuing to strike against each other.