India is not eyeing any land of Pakistan or China but wants peace and amity, said Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday.

Addressing virtual ‘Jan Samvad’ rally of Gujarat BJP from Nagpur in Maharashtra, he said India believed in peace and non-violence and do not want to be strong by becoming an expansionist.

His remarks come amid India’s standoff with China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

He further said “India never tried to grab land of its neighbours like Bhutan and Bangladesh”.

“India do not want land that rightfully belongs to Pakistan or China. All India want is peace, amity, love, and (want) to work together (with neighbouring countries),” Gadkari said.

Speaking on the Narendra Modi government, he further said its biggest achievement was bringing peace by dealing with matters of internal and external security.

“…Whether it is about almost winning over the Maoist problem or securing the country from Pakistan-sponsored terrorism…There is China on the one side of our border and Pakistan on the other side. We want peace, not violence,” he said.

“The strong steps taken by our government against terrorism and naxalism; giving importance to internal and external security has made peace possible in the country,” Gadkari said.

“We brought terrorism exported by Pakistan under control by repulsing terrorists, but the Congress lacked courage and did not give importance to the crisis,” he added.

Gadkari said the NDA government was guided by the concept of “Antyodaya” of Deendayal Upadhyay.

During his speech, the Minister of Road Transport & Highways and MSME also referred to famous novel “Mrityunjaya” by Marathi novelist Shivaji Sawant, saying peace and non-violence can be established by only those who are strong and not weak.

Citing examples, he said India has never tried to grab the land of Bhutan. Even after winning the 1971 war with Pakistan, India helped establish an independent government in Bangladesh.

“We should not make India strong by becoming expansionist. We want to make India strong for establishing peace. We never tried to grab land of Bhutan. Our country made Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the prime minister of Bangladesh after winning the war (with Pakistan in 1971), and our soldiers returned thereafter,” he said.

Meanwhile, last Wednesday, in the backdrop of tensions between Indian and Chinese troops at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said that “no one can dare to stare at India with a crooked eye.”

Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs.

The nearly 3,500-km-long LAC is the de-facto border between the two countries.

Indian and Chinese troops have remained engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in several areas along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, signalling that the standoff could become the biggest military face-off after the Doklam crisis in 2017.

However, a lot of disengagement has taken place on ground following a series of talks which started with Corps Commander-level talks and is being followed up with meetings at the local level between commanders of equivalent ranks.

Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane had on Saturday assured that the entire situation along India’s borders with China is “under control”.