Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday appeared to be making a reference to India's air strikes on terror camps in Pakistan when he said a "pilot project" was recently carried out and now the "real one" has to be done as the earlier exercise was a practice.

Speaking at an award ceremony for scientists, he said, "You spend your life in laboratories. You have a tradition of first doing a pilot project. It is later scaled up. So recently a pilot project happened", as the audience burst into applause.

Modi continued, "Now the real one has to be done. Earlier one was a practice. And the real is to actually give a standing ovation to today's award winners. We will will give a standing ovation."

These remarks of the prime minister were later tweeted by the ruling BJP.