New Delhi, Sep 3: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held “self-appointed guardians” of the Scheduled Castes responsible for building, what he said, was a chorus that the BJP was anti-Dalit.
In an interview to a private channel, which was aired on Friday, Modi said his reaching out to the Dalits has disturbed “those who see this as an obstruction to their politics” and “this is why they are levelling baseless allegations”.
Rejecting the allegations of the Opposition parties, especially the Congress, that some of the charges against their leadership were motivated, Modi affirmed that “neither have I indulged in political vendetta nor will I do it in future”.
He tried to back his claim, as per a report on the channel’s official website, by asserting that his 14-year stint as Gujarat chief minister bore testimony that he didn’t believe in “political tit for tat”.
In the same breath, alluding to the ongoing cases against Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, Modi said the law would take its own course and any fallout should not be misconstrued as a tit for tat by his government.
He urged political leaders, including from his own party, to give up out-of-turn comments. Arguing that some people cannot digest the fact that “Modi is pro-Dalit”, he said the figures showed caste and communal violence was on the decline now, compared to the Congress-led UPA?regime.
“We have a culture dating back to thousands of years. We have seen some imbalance in our society...we have to intelligently take our society out of this imbalance. This is a social problem. It is deeply rooted. Politics on social imbalances is a disservice to society, to all those who have faced injustice for generations,” he said.
He said the BJP had the highest number of MLAs and MPs from the Scheduled Caste community. On the BJP’s electoral strategy for the Assembly polls due in important states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat, Modi said the party would contest on the plank of development, welfare of farmers, jobs for youth, commitment to the cause of social justice and peace and brotherhood. He said he abhorred vote-bank politics on the grounds that it doesn’t strengthen democracy in the country. But, Modi hoped that the people of Uttar Pradesh would vote “keeping development in mind”, as there was no atmosphere of vote-bank politics in 2014 which brought him to power.
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