Ram mandir move only after court order: Modi

POLL BUGLE PM sets tone for 2019 LS elections, calls it ‘janata vs gathbandhan’

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has characterised the 2019 general election as a “public versus coalition” contest, ridiculing the anti-bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance proposed by opposition parties, and indicated that his government will “make all efforts” to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya but only after the related judicial process is completed.

In the wide-ranging interview with ANI, which appeared to set the tone for the 2019 general elections on the first day of the year, Modi vowed to speed up the military procurement process despite facing allegations of wrongdoing in the ₹59,000 crore contract to buy 36 French-made Rafale warplanes. He said India will keep up pressure on Pakistan to check terrorism, but it will be mistake to believe that the latter will mend its ways anytime soon.

He revealed that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel had been speaking about giving up his job for six-toseven months before eventually quitting the post on December 11. “I believe this election is going to be a contest between those who fulfil and take forward the aspirations of the people and those who stop these aspirations. There is experience of 70 years. The public is the decider,” the Prime Minister said, when asked if the Lok Sabha polls were heading towards a US Presidential style of election between Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

“It is going to be janta [public] versus gathbandhan [coalition]. Modi is just a manifestation of public love and blessings,” he said, voicing his faith in the intelligence of ordinary people, drawing the contours of the electoral

The farmers who are dying are out of the purview of such schemes. So these are political stunts contest ahead.

Within hours of an interview Modi gave ANI being aired by television channels, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’S ideological mentor, said people who voted for the party in 2014, after it promised in its manifesto that it would build a Ram temple in Ayodhya, want that promise fulfilled.

“People of the country put their faith in the BJP and voted them to power with a majority...now people expect the gov-