New Delhi: A day after multiple blasts at hotels and churches in Sri Lanka killed 290 people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the terror attack at a poll rally to draw a parallel to the situation in India before he came to power in 2014.

“Yesterday (on Sunday), bomb blast happened in Sri Lanka. Hundreds were killed, that too, on the auspicious occasion of Easter. They were praying to their god when they were killed,” he said and asked a large crowd gathered in Dindori in Maharashtra if the situation in India was not similar to this before 2014.

“What was the situation in India before 2014 – every other day there used to be a blast in some or the other corner of the country,” he said and pointed to the terror attacks in Pune, Mumbai and Gujarat.

Attacking the Congress and the NCP for what he said was a weak response to the Pakistan-sponsored attacks, Modi said that the party only used to shed fake tears.

“The Congress and the NCP, which call themselves experienced, only used to conduct condolence meetings, go around the world crying about Pakistan,” he said.

This, Modi said, has changed since he became the Prime Minister.

“After this Chowkidar was given the power, we attacked the factory of terror in Pakistan, and as a result, terrorism is just restricted to few districts of Jammu and Kashmir, and not a day goes when they are not being killed by our forces," he said.

PM Modi, and the BJP, have firmly kept the poll narrative rooted in national security, and tried to project itself as the “strong and decisive” leadership that India needs to counter Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack.

On Sunday too, the PM had raked up the issue at a rally in Gujarat that he had sent a stern warning to Pakistan after it captured IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman – release him or face the consequences. “Pakistan had to release the pilot or it could become a qatal ki raat (night of deaths),” he said.

The Prime Minister emphasised that people expected him to do something after the Pulwama terror attack.

“What did you expect me to do? Would you have forgiven me if I had done what the Manmohan Singh Government did after the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai?” he asked and accused the UPA government of failing at protecting India’s borders.