New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lashed out at the "self-appointed guardians" of Dalits, unsettled by his commitment towards the downtrodden, for creating tensions in the country and giving a political tone to deep-seated social problems, as he decried the politics of casteism and vote banks as damaging for the country.
In an exclusive interview to CNN-News18, Modi bluntly said criticism of him and his government as being inimical to Dalits was coming from supporters of the previous political regime.
“All those people who never wanted that a government like this come to power, those who never wanted the previous regime to go, they are the ones who have a problem," Modi told Network 18 Group Editor Rahul Joshi in his most comprehensive interview yet.
Over a period of 75 minutes, the PM dwelt on the various challenges facing the country and said data shows incidents of caste and communal violence have in fact gone down during his term compared with the previous regime.
“We have a culture dating back thousands of years. We have seen some imbalance in our society...we have to intelligently take our society out of this imbalance. This is a social problem. It is deeply rooted. Politics on social imbalances is disservice to society, to all those who have faced injustice for generations," he said, pointing out that BJP had the highest number of MLAs and MPs from the Dalit community.
Detailing his pro-backward policies starting with the grand celebration on the 125th anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar, Modi said a few had problems with his devotion to the Dalit icon and the architect of Indian Constitution. “All those self-appointed guardians who were trying to create tension in the country did not like this. That Modi is with the Dalits. That Modi devotes himself to tribals. I am devoted to the development of all Dalits, oppressed, underprivileged and deprived. Those who see this as an obstruction to their politics are the ones creating trouble. And this is why they are levelling baseless allegations. All those who have fed this country the poison of caste divide have destroyed this country. They must stop giving political tones to social problems. We must go forward with a purpose," he said.
Answering a pointed question on BJP’s strategy for the impending state assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the PM urged that one should stop looking at political and developmental activity from the point of view of elections.
“There will be elections in five states in coming days and Uttar Pradesh is one of them. As far as the BJP is concerned, we will fight on development issues only. Our focus will be welfare of farmers, villages, jobs for the youth and we will stay committed to the cause of social justice. Our focus will be to maintain peace, unity and brotherhood in our country. We will take steps in these regards and move forward.
Modi said the biggest obstacle to strengthening democracy in the country was vote-bank politics. “There was no atmosphere of vote-bank politics in last general elections, there was an atmosphere of development politics. After 30 years, people of section of our society unitedly voted for a majority government. An entire section of our society has made a shift. It's possible that the people of UP will do a similar thing for betterment of UP, they will vote keeping development in their mind," he said.
The full interview will be broadcast on CNN-News18 at 9 PM on Friday.
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