‘I’M NOT A BIG NETA, JUST A SMALL PERSON’

THE QUESTIONS FLEW FAST AND FURIOUS, BUT HE PARRIED MASTERFULLY. A CANDID NITIN GADKARI, UNION MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND WATER RESOURCES, POKED GENTLE FUN AT DELHI’S ELITIST POLITICS, THE MEDIA AND SOMETIMES HIMSELF

WHO WILL WIN 2019?

People will once again vote for Narendra Modi. We have reached the Northeast, we will perform well in Kerala and West Bengal. It is regular for any Opposition to say the ruling party will lose the next election. We have done in four years what the Congress could not do in 50 years. In our tenure, the economic growth rate has reached 7.5 per cent, infrastructure has been developed. We are doing work which was not undertaken in the last 50 years. Meanwhile, the Congress is losing everywhere and the BJP is winning. There is no doubt we will win the 2019 elections.

A DIFFERENT BJP?

It’s like this: from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani or Murli Manohar Joshi, the BJP’s image was built on leaders who wore dhoti-kurta. But I have always preferred trousers and shirts. People in Delhi used to tell me, ‘You won’t be accepted as a leader. Start wearing dhoti-pyjama.’ So when I became the BJP president, the media said, ‘The BJP has changed.’ Truth is: with time, everything changes. But our aims, aspirations and mission have remained constant: purse or person, which is bigger? Person. Person or party, which is bigger? Party. Party or philosophy, which is bigger? Philosophy. We are the same even today.

ACHHE DIN NEVER COME

Listen, achhe din never come. A nagarsevak is sad because he is not an MLA, an MLA is sad because he is not an MP, an MP is sad because he is not a minister, a minister is sad because he did not get a plum department. Those who have a Mercedes are sad because they don’t have private planes. It’s like that. Achhe din depend on one’s state of mind. It really means three things: roti, kapda aur makaan. Isn’t it achhe din when the government builds lakhs of housing for poor people? Or when farmers across 1.88 crore hectares get drip irrigation? Or when a project like Sagarmala gets Rs 16 lakh crore worth of investments to modernise ports and create jobs?