'Modi is messiah, has answer to all problems'

Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a "messiah Indians had been waiting for to appear for a thousand years and who has solutions to all their problems."

"Rs 5,000 crore were spent in the name of cleaning Ganga over 29 years but there were no results. Now, if I ask former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he would say Mainu ki pata (what do I know?).

"But for the first time, India has a PM who say mainu sab pata hai (I know everything) as he has answers to everything...all of India's problems," Bharti said at the launch of the Jal Kranti Abhiyan in Jaipur on the World Environment Day on Friday.

Dismissing the Opposition's charge of linking her work with the "saffron agenda", she said, "They see a saffron agenda in Saraswati…Ganga (projects)... but I say this is an economic agenda to alleviate poverty and bring prosperity to people." "Both Hindus and Muslims live along the bank of the Ganga and the river is a source of livelihood to 50-crore people so where is a saffron agenda in this?" she asked.