When questioned about his remarks regarding those “having more children”, the Prime Minister said, “I’m shocked. Why do people assume I’m talking about Muslims?"
After making several problematic speeches during the BJP’s 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that his governance model does not discriminate on the basis of religion or caste. His remarks to a TV channel come amid a raging debate over religious polarisation in the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls.
After filing his nomination papers in Varanasi this morning, PM Modi told the news channel that he celebrated Eid with his neighbours in his childhood and has a lot of Muslim friends. He also said that he believes the people of India will vote him to power for a third straight term.
“I have lived among Muslim families in childhood. I have a lot of Muslim friends. After 2002, efforts were made to tarnish my image,” PM Modi said while referring to communal violence in Gujarat in 2002 when he was the chief minister.
“Muslim families used to live in our neighbourhood. On Eid, we didn’t cook food in my house as the food used to come from the neighbouring Muslim households. On Muharram, we were taught to go under the taziya,” he said while speaking from the banks of the River Ganges in Varanasi.
The Prime Minister said that after 2002, when his image got tainted, he carried out a survey to know the ground reality. “In Ahmedabad, there is a place called Manek Chowk where people go to eat in the evening. But during the day, all businessmen are Muslims and all buyers are Hindus. I sent some people to carry out a survey in that market. When one of them spoke against me, the shopkeeper stopped him and said ‘do not say a word against Modi. My kids are going to school because of Modi.’ Almost 90 per cent shop owners had the same thing to say,” PM Modi told the reporter.
He recounted another incident in which a woman approached him from the predominantly Muslim area of Juhapura to express her gratitude. “She appreciated me for my work on getting electricity in every house. I said but I have cut connections, how is it good. She said it’s good because people used to steal the government’s electricity and take money to give us electricity connections,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that a lot of such things have happened in his life but he doesn’t advertise all of this. “My mantra is ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas‘. I don’t work for vote bank. If something is wrong, I’ll say it’s wrong,” the PM said.
When questioned about his remarks regarding those “having more children”, the Prime Minister said, “I’m shocked. Why do people assume I’m talking about Muslims when I talk about people having too many children? Even poor Hindu families have this issue. They are not being able to give their kids proper education. I have neither named Hindus nor Muslims. I’ve just made an appeal that have only as many kids as you can take care of.”
When asked whether Muslims will vote for him this election, PM Modi said, “I believe that the people of the country will vote for me. The day I start doing Hindu-Muslim, I won’t be fit to live in public life. I will not do Hindu-Muslim divide, this is my commitment.”
“If I give a house, I am talking about saturation, 100 per cent delivery. This means, suppose there are 200 houses in a village – irrespective of which society, which caste, which religion – if there are 60 lakh Indians in those 200 houses, then those 60 lakh people should get it. And when I say 100 per cent saturation, it means true social justice. It is true secularism. When there is no possibility of corruption. You know, even if I get it on Monday, I will get my number on the next Monday,” the PM added.
