I will protect the Constitution with my life: Narendra Modi

(NOTE: This article was originally published in the INDIA TODAY edition dated May 27, 2024)

As election fever peaks in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took time out from his hectic campaign schedule to speak to India Today Group TV news anchors Rahul Kanwal, Sudhir Chaudhary, Anjana Om Kashyap and Sweta Singh. In a freewheeling conversation at his 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence in the capital, the PM touched upon a variety of issues, including the challenges he has set for himself, India’s place in the world, while also tearing into the Opposition’s charges against his government. Edited excerpts:

Q: You started with the slogan of ‘char sau paar’ for the NDA and everyone came down heavily on you. Have you revised the target?

You have families, you have children. If your child scores 90 per cent, I am sure you ask him to score 95 per cent next time. If they score 99 per cent, you push them to score 100. From 2019 to 2024, we already had 400 for the NDA and NDA+. It is my duty to push for 400-plus, move forward. Secondly, as far as responsibility is concerned, it is a leader’s duty. Today, it is the misfortune of the country that blame is heaped on the innocent and politicians run away to save their skin. Here you have someone who is prepared to take on responsibility, who does not run away, who takes accountability for what he says. Every political party must have leaders willing to take responsibility.

Q: Do you feel this is the most comfortable election for you?

One should never slip into a comfort zone. If it gets comfortable, I will set a challenge for myself. There are more accidents on a straight highway. Accidents are fewer when there are curves in the road. I want to keep my team awake, want them running.

Q: A new narrative that the Constitution will be changed seems to be picking up.

The question to be asked is who was the first to tinker with the Constitution? Pandit Nehru was. The first amendment he brought to the Constitution was to restrict the freedom of speech. It was against democracy and the Constitution. The second his daughter Indira Gandhi brought about. The court ruled you cannot stay in Parliament, she overturned it. There were protests, so she declared an Emergency and shut down all the newspapers. After that, her sons came. The Shah Bano judgment came. They (Rajiv Gandhi) overturned the Supreme Court judgment. Then his son (Rahul Gandhi) came. The government was run by remote control, the PM (Manmohan Singh) was run by remote control. The government was born out of the Constitution. The cabinet too was born out of the Constitution. That cabinet took a decision, and along comes a ‘Shahzada’, calls a press conference and tears that ordinance to smithereens, forcing the cabinet to withdraw it. This means four members of the same family at different times have torn the Constitution to shreds. The time for such people to do such things to the Constitution is past. And that is why today I am declaring that Modi zinda hai (is alive), until then, I will protect the Constitution, there will be no reservation on the basis of religion. I will fight for it, sacrifice my life for it. You have divided the country once on the basis of religion.

Q: The Opposition parties have been saying democracy is in danger, that democratic institutions are becoming weaker than before. To the extent that they accuse you of being a dictator.

Firstly, in Parliament, we have repeatedly been telling the Opposition to come and hold debates. But they think they have nothing to say, they don’t have the people for it. All their new MPs come to me and tell me that their five years have been wasted. We could not say a word in the House. Unfortunately, for this family of the Congress, democracy means being in power. They are still not ready to accept that from 2014, some other government and prime minister is in power. Pranab Mukherjee in his book has said how democratically he worked with me. And that we increased the dignity of the presidential office. My government is accused of having no say in the Supreme Court. Our ability is questioned. Does it mean earlier there were some able people who managed the judiciary? And that institution was fine? I believe I should not manage it. Let the law do its job.

Q: The Opposition claims the ED, CBI, income tax department are aggressive when it comes to Opposition leaders, even sending some of them to jail, but soft on those who join the NDA.

We need to ask if the ED was being paid so much in 10 years, what work did it do between 2004 and 2014? The administration was the same, the rules were the same. I haven’t changed the laws, haven’t formed the EDâ€æ They seized only Rs 34 lakh in 10 years. We were in the Opposition. My government has seized Rs 2,200 crore. Your TV channels have shown those bundles of cash. How can you defame that ED? Cash was found in an MP’s house. How can you deny it? Tell me, if I make a big drug haul, won’t you appreciate it? If the ED does it, it is criticised. Why? Because it was caught from a neta’s house.

Q: And you think it should apply equally to everyone?

Anyone, irrespective of background. My fight is against corruption. It is wreaking havoc on the country, destroying it.

Q: The Congress is more focused on employment. Its Nyay Patra has promised 30 lakh jobs, Rs 1 lakh to the educated youth. Your focus is on beneficiaries.

If the central government is responsible for employment, so is the state government, and the local government. So, I should have very little responsibility. Even so, if you talk of fulfilling promisesâ€ærecently, the employment records have comeâ€æthe microfinance in 10 years has generated jobs. Do you not consider it employment? There are 10-12 central schemes on the basis of which they have made this analysis. So, if you build a house, you must be getting that many person-hours of employment. If we add all these things, you are getting six crore new jobs; that is on record. Also, we gave out individual MUDRA loans to 43 crore people. In that, 70 per cent are those who are getting employed for the first time.

Q: Recently there was a report by the international economist Thomas Piketty, in which he said that income inequality is on the rise in India. That India’s growth is K-shaped, people at the top are getting richer and those at the bottom poorer. How do you view this?

So everyone should be poor. That is one solution; there will be no difference then. This is how it was earlier. Now you say everyone should be rich. So, will it happen slowly or will everyone become rich overnight? Some will become rich and pull up others. There is a process. Today, 10 people move forward, tomorrow 100 will, and the day after that 500 more will move ahead.

Q: Rahul Gandhi is accusing you of being friends with big business—with Ambani and Adani.

Nehru’s government was called the Tata-Birla sarkar. The problem with this family is that it believes Modi too should be abused like their grandfather. Why did they rake up Rafale? They thought that if they raised Rafale, it would wash away the sins of Bofors. They have never worked so hard as they have in this election. Why? They think if Modi wins a third term, ‘then my father will lose all respect, my grandmother will lose respect, he will become equal to Nehru’. That is why they have borrowed these abuses from somewhere. Secondly, and I have said this from the Red Fortâ€æthat I have immense respect for capable people, wealth creators. I am not helping the rich. They are the pride of my nation. For the bright future of my country, I have the same respect for the sweat of the labourer as for the wealth of the rich.

Q: When the ‘labharthis’ get benefits, no one asks them if they are Hindu or Muslim. If that is so, why bring up mangalsutra, infiltrators, ‘more kids’ in election rallies? The Opposition accuses you of practising Hindu-Muslim politics.

They were following a completely communal agenda and I exposed it. Their ecosystem suppresses that basic fact. Instead, they amplify what I say, so it seems I do ‘Musalman Musalman’ all the time. This is not the point. The point is that they have written in their manifesto that now they will bring the minority even in the contract system. The contract will be given to the minority. If I oppose that contract, I am being secular. But because I have to use the word minority or Muslim, or alpasankhyak, you think I am attacking Muslims. I am not attacking them. I am attacking those political parties who are making a mockery of secularism, indulging in appeasement politics. They are destroying the spirit of the Constitution. I have proof that I don’t do it. How? I talk of 100 per cent saturation. If there are 700 people in a village and 100 people are eligible for a certain scheme, I believe all of them should get its benefit, regardless of caste. So there should not be discrimination in governance, there should be secularism. We have not done ‘Hindu-Muslim’ anywhere. We are trying to explain their manifesto. I am telling Muslims that they are fooling you, they have been fooling you for 75 years. Why are you allowing them to do so?

Q: So you say you will never do ‘Hindu-Muslim’.

I have never done ‘Hindu-Muslim’, nor will I do it in the future. But if I say triple talaq is wrong and you label me anti-Muslim, then that is your compulsion, not mine.

Q: On the subject of women. Women today have more agency and vote differently from men. How do you see things changing once 33 per cent reservation for women is implemented?

Even people from the West are astonished when I tell them that in India we give 26-week leave to pregnant women. We have built a perception in India that women are householders. This is not true. Look at our agriculture sector. Even today, the contribution of women in the sector is 60 per cent. But we have not been able to present this true picture to the world. Today, 15 per cent of commercial pilots in India are women—the highest for any country in the world.

Q: Women, we think, are your silent voters. But is it actually because all political parties are announcing freebies to attract their vote?

The issue is not really about women, it is whether political parties should empty their coffers to win elections. You build a Metro in a city. And then you announce free rides for women in the same city to win elections. This means you have taken out 50 per cent of the passengers for the Metro, making it unviable. Will we build it in the future or not? That is the concern.

Q: In the next five years, what will India’s role be at the global high table?

The earlier narrative was that we maintain equal distance, that was the language of diplomacy. I said, nothing doing. In my language, everyone should be close. Earlier, there was a competition to stay away, now everyone is competing to get close to us. Also, we do not take our decisions based on some third person. We take our own decisions. I talk to everyone. If President Putin praises me, it does not mean that I cannot tell him that this is not the time for war. When our intentions are good, people trust you. I have no hidden agenda. I tell the Americans, I don’t ask them. If my country needs cheap oil from Russia, I will take it, as it is important for me. I will not hide it. I run the country on my own terms.

Q: What do you hope your legacy to be?

I have been asked this before. I am surprised. A person who lives for the country, why will he think about himself? I don’t work so that people remember me. If they have to remember anything, it should be the 40 per cent voter turnout in Kashmir after 40 years, and celebrate the festival of democracy. Think about the G20, where people praised India. Think of the time India will become the third-largest economy. What does Modi have to do with it? Hundreds of people like me will come and go.

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