From next 18 months agenda to judicial crisis, PM shares much more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second interview of 2018 garnered much attention as he discussed slew of issues including judicial crisis, union budget 2018, economy and job creation and many others.

The interview with a news channel Times Now, which was telecasted on Sunday, comes a day after the Prime Minister appeared on Zee News.

On the Judicial Crisis in Supreme Court

Commenting on the recent crisis in the administration of the Supreme Court, Prime Narendra Modi rebuffed a question on the allegations against the conduct of CJI Deepak Misra by saying, "I believe the government and I should not speak on this issue. Our judiciary is full of excellent individuals and we should leave it to them."

The apparent crisis in the top court came to the fore when four top court judges, justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, on January 12 held a press conference - a first by apex court judges - and alleged that the CJI had been violating the conventions in his role as the master of the roster.

On Union Budget 2018

The Prime Minister hinted that the Union Budget 2018 will be in favour of 'common man'.

Replying to the question that whether the government will present a populist budget eyeing the 2019 elections he said, "The common man expects honesty, he expects to get what he deserves. He doesn't demand sops & freebies. It is our myth. I trust the common man of the country."

He, however, said that budget is the property of Parliament and falls under the ambit of Finance minister, hence he don't want to interfere in that.

On his Priorities for Next 18 months

The Prime Minister also shared his priorities for the remaining 18-month journey before the 2019 elections.

He listed out electricity supply as his priority while saying that soon he would provide electricity to everyone free of cost.

"In India, there are 25 crore families approximately. Out of the 25 crore families, four crore families are still living in darkness. There is no electricity connection in their homes. I set a deadline for myself, that within a certain period of time I will provide those four crore families electricity and that too for free," he said.

On Job Creation and Economy

Prime Minister Modi claimed that Indian economy has flourished since the BJP came to power while accusing the Opposition of "spreading lies about (lack of) employment.

"Fiscal Deficit was earlier 4.5 percent or even more, and we have brought it down to 3.5 percent. Current account deficit, in comparison to the GDP was four percent. Today, we have brought it down to between 1-2 percent. Secondly, we have taken FDI from 30 billion dollars to now more than 62 billion dollars. This is a big jump in itself. This happens when there is trust in economic policies," he said.

"If every sector like Railways, Power, Textiles, infrastructure are expanding everyday, then how is it possible that more people will not get employment," he added.

On NDA rule

When asked to rate the 3.5 years of the NDA rule, the Prime Minister said that the government has performed exceptionally well, especially in elections.

"If elections are a way of measuring our success, than the government has performed exceptionally well," he said.

He further took a dig at the UPA government while saying that all the scams took place in their regime.

"During UPA's tenure, the newspapers were filled with stories about scams. If we take elections as a report card, than we have performed excellently. The world is saying India is a bright spot. I would definitely want that the country to get a comparative study of 10 years of UPA, with our three and a half or four years in office.

The interview also covered issues like Triple Talaq Bill, Uniform Civil Code, GST, unemployment, the agrarian distress and much more.