Chennai, March 31 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he has deeply imbibed the culture, tradition, and spirituality of Tamil Nadu and this is what draws him repeatedly to the state and not any thought to "political gains".
Asked about the electoral bonds issue and whether the BJP was on the backfoot due to this, the Prime Minister, defending the scheme, said that till the 2014 elections, nobody had any idea of where the money for spending in elections was coming from, and after the electoral bonds formulated by his government, people knew the source.
This gives a clear picture regarding the funding and political parties are more accountable, the Prime Minister, who was clad in the traditional Tamil dress of veshti and mundu, said in an interview to Tamil television channel Thanthi TV.
Asked about the confidence he has to speak about more than 400 seats even after ten years in power, he said that the people of the country aspire to such a victory for the BJP and the NDA. He said that his focus was on a Viksit Bharat in 2047.
On allegations that central agencies like the Directorate of Enforcement "hounding" politicians, PM Modi said that the ED has registered 7,000 cases in the country, out of which only 3 per cent were registered against politicians.
He stressed that the ED was an independent agency and that he or his government had not intervened in its affairs, set it behind any individual, or restricted it from going after those who had done wrong.
Noting that the PMLA was there much before, he added that ED was doing its duty and denied any vengeance on his part or from his government.
On his Tamil Nadu visits, PM Modi said that he had been to Kanniyakumari during the inauguration of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and added that he was part of the ‘Ekta Yatra’ from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir.
Commenting on dynastic politics, he said that he was not against one, two, or even ten persons from a family coming to politics, adding that more and more people must join politics. The PM said that the issue was parties based on families in which the next generation is taking up the mantle from their fathers or grandfathers and every decision was being taken by the top leaders' family. He said that this leads to several bright and brilliant people in such parties getting sidelined.
Asked what advice would he give to the Congress to revive itself, he said that there were several senior leaders in the opposition party who were sidelined and if the party listened to these leaders, then it could move forward.
To a question on what advice he wanted to give to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and his DMK, the PM quipped that there was no need for any advice from him but it was the people of Tamil Nadu who would be going to give them advice in the ensuing elections.
Speaking highly of the BJP Tamil Nadu President K. Annamalai, the Prime Minister said that he had quit a lucrative job and come to serve the people of the state. He said that Annamalai could have joined any Dravidian party like DMK or AIADMK or any casteist party but the young leader preferred to join the BJP for serving the nation.
On what the Modi guarantee was for Tamil Nadu if his government came back to power, the PM said that the first priority was the defence corridor and that the Thoothukudi port would be elevated to world-class levels, thus developing the area and thereby the state.
He also said that just like Tamil Nadu’s traditional idli and dosa were available across the country and abroad, he wanted the Tamil language - the oldest language to get its due recognition in the world - and that was the reason for him to speak in Tamil during his speech in the United Nations.
The Prime Minister also spoke about the exemplary work done by IIT Madras in the 5G communications and the work being done in 6G.