Vowing not to ever indulge in identity politics, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday said the country has long been ruled by “pseudo secularists” and he will prefer a rout in the elections to engaging in divisive agenda.
“I will never engage in divisive politics even if it means that I lose the elections. The country has been divided in the name of secularism. We are all fellow citizens and that is my firm belief. I have succeeded in Gujarat and I will succeed in India,” Modi said. He also offered to face a probe if any corruption allegations are levelled against him as Prime Minister.
“I will not make any appeal to Hindus or Muslims but to the entire 125 crore people of India. If it suits them, then it is fine. If it does not suit them, I am ready to face defeat in the elections, I am ready to be wiped out. My mantra is that all are one. I cannot accept a divide between brothers of the country in the name of secularism. In the name of secularism, the nation has been divided,” he told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview.
He was responding to a question if he would make an appeal to Muslims in Varanasi, from where he is contesting. He was also questioned on the objections of BJP over Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid when its own president Rajnath Singh had met Muslim clerics in lucknow.
In his response, Modi said the objection was not to the meeting but to the “message” that was going out. “We want Soniaji to meet Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, anybody. It is part of democracy... But a particular community was told whom to vote for. This is against Constitution and electoral laws. It is not wrong to meet but the message that has gone out is a matter of concern,” he said.
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate said, if voted to power, he would give priority to preventing corruption in the future rather than “waste time on cleaning up old mess”. In case charges of corruption are levelled against him in the capacity of Prime Minister, Modi said, “Professionally if there are any allegations against me, those cases should not get stuck but should continue. Modi should stop them.”
Modi also talked about dealing with criminalisation of politics, saying his Government would ask the Supreme Court to create a mechanism to fast-track pending cases against lawmakers. Describing corruption as a “disease”, he said he would put in place a mechanism by which corruption could be prevented.
“My priority will be to develop a system by which the scope of corruption is minimised. We have to decide either I should concentrate my efforts on preventing new corruption or to clean up the old mess. My conscience says that my focus should be to ensure that new mess (of corruption) is not created,” he said.
“If I create such a mechanism, which has technology and transparency and all the preventive measures, we will address jointly the issue of corruption. That should not be political, otherwise the cause will be defeated and this disease will continue to increase,” he said.