PM Modi: Not anti-minority, but against ‘spl citizens’
New Delhi, May 20
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the BJP has never been against minorities, believes in equality for all, but is not ready to accept anyone as “special citizens”.
My welfare lies in Constitution’s welfare
Without Constitution, a person of my socio-economic background couldn’t have made it this far. My own welfare lies in welfare of Constitution. Narendra Modi, PM
“The BJP has never been against minorities. Not just today but never. We want to take everyone along with us. We are not ready to accept anyone as special citizens but consider everyone equal,” the PM said speaking to a news agency today. The PM had earlier said his sole purpose was to expose the opposition, which was the one playing “communal and caste politics”. “I am going to expose the opposition even if I am tagged with a communal label,” he had told a television channel yesterday. The PM, exuding confidence of the NDA combine winning 400 plus seats, said all assessments of the past phases of the election showed the NDA was in pole position, while the Congress, along with its “INDI Alliance”, was struggling to even open its account in some states. “We will see more seats from all parts of the country, particularly from the South and East. The NDA is on course to achieving 400 seats,” PM said.
Rejecting opposition claims that the BJP wanted a massive mandate to change the Constitution and scrap constitutional quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs, the PM said: “This is a laughable proposition that we will do anything to reservations given by the Constitution.”
“Without the Constitution, a person of my socio-economic background could have never made it this far. So, even if you assume I act out of self-interest, my own welfare lies in the welfare of the Constitution,” he said.
On BJP’s South and East push, the PM said like in 2019 the party would emerge as the single-largest party in the South also. “We will be the single-largest party in southern India and by an even bigger margin than the last time. We have seen a jump in mind share already. We will see a big jump in seat share and vote share across the region,” he said, adding the “so-called red corridor will become a saffron corridor” in these elections.
Reiterating his priority to root out corruption, the PM said his war against corruption was a serious one. “This battle against corruption is a serious one and probe agencies must be allowed to do their work without interference,” Modi said.
He said his remarks on Adani-Ambani (when he asked Rahul Gandhi whether the two industrialists had sent him tempos full of money) had been validated by senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. “Adhir admitted he will not speak against Adani-Ambani if they send tempo-loads of money,” said PM.
On a lighter note, the PM told the agency that the biggest allegation he had ever faced involved owning 250 pairs of clothes.
