Will serve Gujarat till 2017: Narendra Modi
Ahmedabad, Sep 5 (Agencies): Interacting with students on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Thursday said he plans to "serve" the people of Gujarat till 2017.
"I will serve my people till 2017," said Modi, widely considered the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha election.
Modi, re-elected the Gujarat chief minister in 2012 for a five-year term, said that he has no ambition to become anything.
Responding to a student’s query whether he will come and talk to them after ‘he becomes PM next year’, Modi said, “I have to serve you till 2017 & I am doing this. The people of Gujarat have chosen me to serve till 2017 and that is my priority. I have to do only that, will focus all my energy in doing that."
Modi was made this year the BJP's Lok Sabha campaign chief, further fuelling speculation that he is in the race for the prime minister's post.
The BJP leader explained why he wanted to be in Gujarat.
"Those people who dream of becoming someone, for them everything gets destroyed," he said.
"One should not dream of becoming someone, one should always dream of doing something. The pleasure in dreaming about something is totally different," he said.
“I have no intention of becoming anything. I want to serve people. I don't dream of becoming somebody but dream of doing something."
Modi’s statement can be seen as an attempt to put pressure on the BJP top brass to declare him as PM candidate and an open assertion that he wants to work on the ground and not be a ‘PM in waiting’ on the lines of what LK Advani was in 1999.
Also, Modi’s stress on being in Gujarat till 2017 may be his way of assuaging his core base in the state that he is and will be in control, especially in view of the stinging claims made by suspended IPS officer DG Vanzara.
On a question on how many times he gets angry in a day and what does he do when he gets angry, Modi said, “I am also human. I am not above the shortcomings humans have. I believe anger can be controlled. It is just about controlling at that moment. If you get angry on others means you fail. More your patience increases the more your anger decreases.”
Reactions
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) immediately said it was not for Modi to decide what his role would be in politics, while the Congress said the chief minister was running "scared".
Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said Modi's statement was linked to the letter written by jailed police officer D.G. Vanzara, who has blamed the chief minister and former home minister Amit Shah for the many "encounter deaths" in the state.
"He is scared. He knows people of the country will not like to vote for such a person as prime minister," Alvi said.
But BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said: "Modi will not decide. His role would be decided by the party and the nation. He was just saying about his role in the state."