Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a dig at the opposition and his detractors during an exclusive interview with News18, saying those who abused him over the years made him who he is today. Otherwise, said the PM, people wouldn’t have ever given him too much importance.
“When a person has lost completely on the basis of arguments, facts, and ground realities, and is getting nothing in hand, then he starts banging the table, shouting, spouting drivel," said the Prime Minister, while speaking with News18’s Rubika Liyaquat in Varanasi where he filed his nomination to defend the Lok Sabha seat in the ongoing general elections. “Now, I have two paths in front of me. Either I focus my attention on all the bedlam that’s happening or I dedicate myself to what I have vowed to do. So, I have devoted myself to the tasks that I have undertaken."
The PM said that because he practises yoga and “lives meditation", he can focus on his work in the midst of all the pandemonium.
The scriptures say “nindak niyare raakhiye" (keep your critics close), said the Prime Minister. His detractors thought they could destroy him and his ideology with their abuses, but instead, they gave him prominence, PM Modi added. “When I used to do public meetings in Gujarat, I would ask the organisers if anyone had shown up with black flags. When they answered in the negative, I would urge them to get some people with black flags because only then would it be reported in the newspapers the next day that I had done such a programme," he told News18.
PM Modi said he was aware that positive news about him would not be printed.
“Once a few people came to me in Gujarat. They were carrying sweets with them. There were the heads of about 40-50 villages in the gathering. They said our villages now have electricity 24 hours a day, so we have come to pay our respects to you. I said you are lying, it’s not possible that you have electricity 24 hours a day. They said but it has happened. I said then show me which newspaper has printed it, which television channel has shown it. They said newspapers will not print this. I said then should I take your word for it. They said, yes. Then I asked them to give me the sweets. So these are things that I have gone through. And I have enjoyed them," said the Prime Minister.
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