BJP will win all five poll-bound states, says PM Narendra Modi

Says intention has always been to protect farmers' interests

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a full-scale attack on political parties that relied on dynasties and defended his own party’s (Bharatiya Janata Party’s) decision to support members of political families as a way to foster public service.

In his first interview since he returned to power in 2019, he declared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would win all five poll-bound states.

Hours before voting for the first phase of the ongoing Assembly election, Modi said dynastic politics put democracy in danger and prevented new talent from emerging in public service.

Modi said there was nothing socialist about the Samajwadi Party, which was only about tightening the stranglehold of family rule over a political grouping: This, in turn, deterred the party from acting in the national interests, putting the interests of the family before those of the people. Parties like the Congress had institutionalised the rule of family, he said.

Modi said the BJP would win elections because it had crafted policies that were centred on the needs of the people. India had reached where it had because of this and this was resented by critics -- and the media -- in other countries because India was seen emerging as a new dominant global power. He said his government’s policies were discriminatory neither on the basis of religion nor caste: These were imagined grievances, and inventions of forces that resented India’s rise.

In UP, Modi said the Yogi Adityanath government had brought law and order back in the state, giving women the freedom to move out even after sunset. In Punjab, he acknowledged the barriers put on the BJP’s growth by former partners like the Akali Dal. Speaking of farmers, he said his intention had always been to protect the interests of small farmers, who, he felt, the government had managed to be via direct benefit transfer. He repeated his earlier charge that both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party had acted in ways that sent migrants back to their villages, thus conspiring to cause the further spread of Covid-19.

Modi said he believed the government had no business to be in business, only create conditions for people to unleash their full entrepreneurial talent. He rebutted the charge the government had sent investigative agencies selectively after political opponents, saying it was the job of all governments to prevent the misuse of public money.