NEW DELHI: A day after unveiling the BJP’s Lok Sabha election manifesto, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took aim at the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in an interview on Monday, saying Tamil voters’ resentment against the DMK will help the saffron camp in the upcoming elections.
“Five generations of our party have been working in south India and the works are continuing. When the people of the state were disappointed with the Congress, they turned to regional parties. And now, the people are disappointed with these parties,” he told ANI in the interview.
Amid this disappointment, Modi said the people of the state took note of the BJP model of government at the Centre and in the BJP-ruled states. “The Tamils who live across India went to their home and said this is happening in the state where we live. Naturally, people started comparing,” Modi said.
He said the DMK used “to make fun of us calling Panipuri-wallah”. “But when the people of Tamil Nadu came and saw Kashi, they said this is not what they used to hear. There is a lot of progress. And because of that, anger against the DMK has increased,” he said. Attacking the Congress, Modi said, “there are parties that have the mission: of the family, by the family and for the family”.
Had party state president Annamalai gone to the DMK, he would have become a big name, Modi said. “But he did not go there and instead joined the BJP. The people there think if Annamalai has joined the BJP, it is because he believes in the party’s ideology. So it has become a source of attraction. Our party gives opportunity to every small and big worker who is capable,” Modi said.
He said the Congress must also be questioned about its ally’s stance against Sanatana Dharma. “The Congress where Indira Gandhi used to wear a Rudraksha mala around her neck. The question should be asked to the Congress. What is your helplessness? Why are you sitting with the people who have so much hatred against Sanatana?,” he asked adding that the DMK must have been born out of hatred of Sanatana.