We made peace overtures, Pakistan responded with Pathankot, Uri : Arun Jaitley,

"Our efforts to reach out to Pakistan has been thwarted by them with responses such as Pathankot or Uri. So our overtures for peace have been successfully avoided by Pakistan," Jaitley said while addressing a press conference, which was organised to mark three years of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre.

He said the Government  took "significant steps to ease the situation".  These included Prime Minister Narendra Modi inviting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his swearing in and his surprise visit to Lahore on Mr Sharif's birthday.

"Each one of these was responded by Pakistan with, let's say, a Pathankot or an Uri or even the mutilation of two of our soldiers. Environment which must exist for talks was successfully prevented by Pakistan,"  Jaitely said.

The Minister also said Indian forces have been dominating the Line of Control for the "past few weeks". " Our security forces have been maintaining control over the situation."

Speaking on three years of the Modi Government, Jaitley said economy has restored its credibility with the help of reforms introduced during this period.

“Last three years were challenging for the entire world on economic front. Three years ago, there was slowdown in policy reform and structural changes in India. The system we inherited was weak in terms of credibility mainly due to corruption and indecisiveness,” he said.

On the slowdown in the GDP growth, Jaitley said: “There are several factors which affect GDP. Even before demonetisation, there was some slowdown. I do believe, that in the current global situation, a 7 to 8% growth which is at the moment an Indian normal, is a reasonable growth. I don’t see any adverse impact of the GST.”