'Dumper state': Rajnath Singh's reply to Asim Munir's Mercedes statement; 'consider it confession, not troll'

NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday took a jab at Pakistan army chief Asim Munir's Mercedes statement, calling it a "confession" rather than a "troll material". Drawing attention to Munir's odd analogy where he compared India to a “shining Mercedes” and Pakistan to a “dump truck”, Singh said that it was acknowledged by everyone that India had a "Ferrari-like economy" and Pakistan was still in a "dumper state"."I am not saying. Pakistan's economy is like a dump truck full of debris. Now you people know the answer to this. Now, Asim Munir was trolled a lot for this statement both inside Pakistan and all over the world. Everyone said that if two countries got independence at the same time and one country built a Ferrari-like economy through hard work, right policies and foresight and the other is still in a dumper state, then it is their own failure," Rajnath Singh said at Economic Times World Leaders Forum 2025."I consider this statement of Asim Munir as a confession. I do not consider his statement as mere troll material... If we do not pay attention to the historical indication behind this serious warning, then it can become a matter of concern for us. And yes, if we pay attention to this and prepare for it, then India is capable of giving a befitting reply to such warnings," he added.Munir's Mercedes statement has been the latest one on India where he compared the two nations and went on to claim that one could "imagine" what would happen if the two collided.“India is like a shining Mercedes, but we are like a dumper truck, loaded with stones; imagine what happens when the two collide,” he had said.Earlier this month, Munir sparked outrage with a provocative warning to India, claiming that Islamabad would be willing to “take down half the world” if faced with an existential threat from New Delhi. India swiftly rejected the remarks as another instance of Pakistan’s “nuclear sabre-rattling,” stressing that it would not succumb to nuclear blackmail. At the heart of Munir’s statement was a controversial “crude analogy,” in which he likened India to a “shining Mercedes” and Pakistan to a “dump truck full of gravel,” suggesting that even in collision, India would suffer significant losses. Munir’s analogy was widely mocked across social media, where users ridiculed what they saw as an inadvertent admission of Pakistan’s economic and military weakness in comparison to India.