He also offered to have a dialogue with the dissenting writers, filmmakers and artistes, who have returned government awards for protesting against the rising intolerance in the country. “One can not foretell what kind of circumstances might arise in the future”, Rajnath Singh said. “We are prepared to listen to them out as their ideas are beneficial and must be deliberated upon”, Singh stated whereas interacting with journalists on Tuesday.
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LJP Secretary General Abdul Khaliq said that Bhagwat’s remarks consolidated Yadavs behind RJD chief Lalu Prasad while the “statements of leaders justifying Dadri killings” consolidated Muslims, that scripted the victory of the grand alliance.
Several BJP leaders have confronted criticism for making communally charged statements lately. We can’t think like that.
Speaking a day after finance minister Arun Jaitley, Singh said that neither Mohan Bhagwat nor PM Modi can be held responsible for the Bihar debacle and instead held “certain social equations” responsible for the poor result.
Asked whether the RSS chief’s statement calling for a review of reservations policy had a negative impact on the NDA’s prospects, the home minister said: “Social equations of Mahagathbandhan hamare upar bhari padi (The social equation of the Grand Alliance cost us dearly)”.
Mr Singh insisted Mr Bhagwat had said there was a need for a fresh look on who should get the benefit of quotas, in comments that raised a huge political storm nationwide ahead of the Bihar elections. To a question if former BJP president Nitin Gadkari was in the reckoning for the post, Singh said, “Amit Shah is there”.
The defeat is being seen as a blow to the BJP after its 2014 poll landslide.
Noting that democracy has no place for the word “I” and the very meaning of democracy lies in “We”, Surjewala said “On the contrary, PM Modi’s brand style is one way communication”.
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Refusing to take the arrogance blame, the home minister said that “if it was so, we would have not won elections in Jharkhand, Ladakh, Maharashtra and Haryana…The party did quite well in Kerala too”. We will not do justice to future if we decide future only on the basis of one elections, he added.
