‘MODI KI GUARANTEE’ IS NOT JUST A ‘GUARANTEE’ BUT MODI’S ‘OWNERSHIP’, SAYS PM MODI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in conversation with Aditi Nagar and Poornima Mishra during an exclusive interview with Bharat24 in Patna on Monday

• Poornima Mishra: We are in Bihar, and here the main Opposition party— RJD—and the alliance of which it is a part have been claiming that if you come to power for the third time, then reservation would end. What is your take on this allegation?
  PM Narendra Modi: Has the collective media of the nation ever questioned them as to from where they brought this claim, and what is the basis of this? We ran the government during Atalji’s time and are running it now too. Has there been even a single incident based on which they have made this claim? See, the challenge is that someone throws garbage, and then the media picks it up and brings it before us asking us to make a bouquet out of it. This is not right. But since you have asked I will say that these people have no right to utter even a word about the Constitution. It is so because they ran the government on an oath of the Constitution but engaged in stealing fodder. The court has sent them to jail. So this means that they dishonoured the Constitution. Secondly, when the bill for thirty-three per cent women reservation was brought, their own party members snatched the bill and tore it. It happened on the last day of the session and after that, the bill was kept in the lurch for thirty years! So the people who played with the Constitution and parliamentary proceedings are today lying for political gains. These statements have been made by those who have three things in common i.e. they are extremely communal, they are casteist and like to create friction among castes and they are dynastic. Then there is the shehzada of Congress and the person who can call a press meeting and tear away the paper containing the decision of the cabinet, which is formed under the Constitution, such a person has no right to say a word on the Constitution.

• Aditi Nagar: The entire Opposition has come together as they want to bring Narendra Modi down. On the other hand, you have given the slogan of ‘400 paar’ this time and there is pressure on the Opposition as well as the BJP. So after the fifth phase of polling, do you think you are close to that target of 400 seats?
  PM Narendra Modi: Well, I would have been happy to see the Opposition united. But the situation is that they are not one. I.N.D.I. Alliance worked to give a photoop to those interested. Those who were there in the first photo session were missing in the second photo-op and similarly, those in the second were missing in the third. Till now there must have been 4-5 such sessions, but through this time, the number of Opposition leaders has come down and so has their category of topranking leaders have stopped coming. Their oldest supporter in the alliance is the Left and they contested the election in Wayanad against the Left. In Kerala, Congress and the Left have always been at loggerheads. How can you then say the Opposition is united? I say that it would have been good had they united on issues or ideas, but it did not happen. It is a worrisome issue for the nation that the Opposition has not played the actual role befitting the Opposition. No one has come before the nation with constructive issues and the problems they are facing today are also due to their own doing therefore what will the nation benefit from bringing those to power who failed as an Opposition? Moreover, their track record is not something that would attract the youth. As far as BJP is concerned, the people of the nation have decided to give us more than 400 seats. So this election is being contested under the people’s leadership and the people have taken ownership of this election. When I tour places I go there to seek blessings of the people. I recently visited Patna to condole the death of a party leader but as I was travelling, it turned into an 8-10 kilometre long roadshow. There was no reason behind it turning into a roadshow, so this shows that it is the people who are contesting the election.

• Aditi Nagar: I covered the length of India from Ayodhya to Rameshwaram and in Ayodhya, I saw a huge line of people from South of India and by the time I reached Rameshwaram, I realised that in the five states of South India, Modi had reached people’s homes. So does that mean BJP has become a truly national party and this credit goes to you?
  PM Narendra Modi: Unfortunately, some people have created a narrative in our country, and the journalists from the new generation have also got stuck in it. What is the narrative? That BJP is a North-Indian party, that it is a party of urban areas or that it belongs to Baniyas and Brahmins and many other such narratives have been made over the past 40- 50 years. But the fact is that the BJP has been ruling in Gujarat for thirty years, so tell me is Gujarat a Hindi-belt state? We have governments in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Pudducherry and other states. But this narrative has stuck and no one is counter-questioning the person who is repeating these lines now. Even today, be it Kerala or Kashmir, our people have been elected into Panchayats, local bodies and state assemblies. BJP is well established on an organisational level across the length and breadth of India and as public representatives also it is there who are carrying out their roles. Although accusations are levelled at us, but who has the most SC, ST and OBC legislators and parliamentarians in state assembly and in Parliament? It is the BJP. Moreover, the BJP has the most number of female MPs and also MPs from farming or rural backgrounds. But that old narrative is still being carried over.