What kind of response are you getting during your campaign?
There is a very strong current in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. You have old ladies telling you: “Tera Modi bilkul acchha hai. Theek kaam kar raha hai. (Your Modi is very good. He is doing good work.)” His work has permeated through multiple layers and reached the hearts of the people.
The BJP lost the recent assembly elections in Rajasthan. What makes you optimistic about the Lok Sabha polls?
The assembly elections were on an entirely different agenda. The Congress literally went to every home and said ‘vote for us now, you can vote for whoever you want in 2019’. So there is no connection between the 2018 elections and these elections. These are the prime minister’s elections. The national elections.
What are the issues for the BJP in this election?
We brought development to every village. Every panchayat now has houses because of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. There are gas connections in every panchayat. The prime minister’s Ayushman Bharat has given strength to the people. The policies for the farmers are aimed at taking the benefits directly to them.
The Congress says that agrarian crisis and joblessness are the two biggest issues in this election.
The people know that there is only one person and one party with the vision to overcome these challenges. How have these challenges come about? Because of 50 years of bad governance. The large-scale corruption and lack of vision have created this situation.
The opposition charges the BJP with resorting to ultranationalism to divert attention from its failures.
Our work has statistical evidence plus visual evidence if you go to any panchayat. On every scheme that we announced, we have delivered. We have also taken care of national security, which the UPA and the Congress ignored.
When the Mumbai attacks happened, the Congress did not have the guts to put Pakistan in its place. We sent the message that for body bags coming here, you will have your own body bags reaching your homes. We isolated them internationally. For the first time, only China was standing with them.
[Former DRDO chief] V.K. Saraswat is on record stating that he sought permission to conduct the anti-satellite missile test in 2011, but they did not have the guts to do it. We have gone ahead and done it. This is all proof of what our government has achieved on multiple fronts.
The BJP has been accused of playing politics over the achievements of the armed forces.
The opposition is conveniently looking at only the post announcement scenario of the success of the strikes. It is a skewed opinion. Aircraft do not take off on orders from the Army or the Air chief. Soldiers do not cross [borders] because of the Army chief’s orders. They carry out the operation tactically. But the order is given by the prime minister.
Whatever happens is on the prime minister. Imagine if there is a failure. If you think it was done for elections, what happens then? When he has the guts to take the blame, then he also has the privilege of being part of the victory. Our government’s ability to convert the capture of our pilot into our success speaks volumes of our prime minister’s ability to steer the nation into the future. The nation is safe in his hands.
Questions were asked about the efficacy of the post-Pulwama action.
How naive can the opposition be, trying to divert people’s attention to the number of kills? We had a major policy shift, which is that terrorism will be responded to by attacking the root of terrorism. The opposition should have been together with the nation celebrating this achievement. But they have isolated themselves like pathetic losers by trying to find faults in a phenomenal success.