NEW DELHI : Batting for a third straight term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during an exclusive interview said on Monday that the world will only trust a “stable government” with a mandate, adding that no one “trusts a coalition government.”
In an interview, the Prime Minister hit out at the INDIA bloc’s “one-year-one-PM formula” by giving the example of the power-sharing formulas in states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Giving an analogy of sports, he said, “Even for a cricket team, you have to have a captain, even for a Kabaddi team, a name is given. You are not telling who will handle such a big country. That is when they have come up with a ‘One Year, One PM’ formula. Every year, one new leader will take the oath as PM, make a new government and new cabinet. For five years, they will stay busy with the swearing in events, while, the country will be busy with difficult events. Now can any country run like this?”
He also also cited an example of Congress leaders striking a deal to become chief ministers in their respective states after a certain period within the five-year tenure that led to their debacle in Madhya Pradesh.
“These are two different questions, See the character of the Congress. In Rajasthan, there was an internal conflict within the party. They made a formula that one would be the Chief Minister for 2.5 years and the other would be the Chief Minister for the next 2.5 years. It is a well-known formula. There was a fight within the party in Chhattisgarh. They made the same formula there too: that he would be the Chief Minister for the next 2.5 years. They somehow resolved the matter and kept it going. It is also true that, after 2.5 years, they backtracked. They betrayed their own party. They have a tendency to betray their own party. This is one thing. It is proven that Congress thinks of such a formula. I just read somewhere in the media that they had a small meeting. I read in the media that it was asked that when Modi is repeatedly asking that to whom should we hand over such a big country, a name should we hand over such a big country, a name should be there, when it comes to such a big country? You will have to give a name; give anybody’s name,” PM Modi said during an interview.
The Prime Minister further said that for 30 years, the country has seen instability, adding”It is a big country. The country has been instability for 30 years. We have seen the era of the coalition government. Today, the prestige of India has increased in the world because the 140 crore people of India have formed a stable and majority government. So anyone can trust us, this government has the mandate. No one trusts a coalition government. Such a big country cannot function like this,” the PM said.
PM Modi said that the BJP has always respected and honoured regional aspirations despite winning with a clear mandate.
“But today, the politics of the country are such that no matter how big a majority a party wins with, it has honoured regional aspirations. And that is why, even when we got an absolute majority, we still formed the NDA government, with the help of NDA allies. Because even after a party gets an absolute majority, for the bright future of the country’s politics and the aspirations of the people of the country, regional aspirations should be given the same respect and share. This character has been developed by the NDA and the Bharatiya Janata Party has shown it can be put into practice,” he said.
Lok Sabha elections are being held in seven phases till June 1 and votes will be counted on June 4. (ANI)