Swamy not upset at being overlooked for Modi ministry

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has said he is not upset at not being inducted in Narendra Modi's council of ministers, which was expanded Sunday.

"Am I looking sad that I am not part of the government? Don't feel sad for me, feel sad for yourself," Swamy said to a query by media persons about his not figuring among the new ministers.

He claimed to be in a much better position than any minister in the Modi government.

"You people have all been brainwashed by the Englishman who can only think of posts. The original ancient India thing is, Brahmins never held any post, all the learned had no posts, yet the king had to listen to them," said Swamy.

"I am in a position today that if I decide to say something, the government will listen to me. That's a much better position to be in than being in the government in one ministry," he said.

Swamy also dismissed the erstwhile Janata Parivar, which is seemingly regrouping to counter the Modi wave and ruled out joining it.

"Why have they suddenly started thinking of Janata Parivar? It is these people who broke it. They have lost their credibility and are unmatchable to Modi. I was the last surviving Janata Parivar member and I had to merge with my old party, the Jan Sangh, whose later avatar was the BJP. Now, the real Janata Parivar is BJP," he said.

Swamy said he would urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce a central legislation on the ban of cow slaughter.

"I just want to tell the chief minister (Naveen Patnaik) to be aware. This is something sacred to the Hindus. Please don't be lax on this issue," he said.

To a query on whether he would extend his support to unearthing the mining scam in Odisha, he said his hands are with full of cases.

"I have the Aircel-Maxist deal to send P. Chidambaram to jail... I have the Sunanda Pushkar case to send Shashi Tharoor to jail," he claimed.

He also said he is 100 percent sure of sending Congress president Sonia Gandhi to jail in the National Herald case, which comes up again for hearing in Delhi High Court on Dec 2.