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'If RG calls Chowkidar Chor, we say Khandan Chor Hai'

Last Updated 26 April 2019, 05:08 IST

Riding on the Modi wave, BJP had won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi five years ago. The party is once again in the fight repeating five out of its seven sitting MPs and bringing in two new faces. AAP and Congress now want to puncture the BJP juggernaut.

Meenakshi Lekhi, a prominent BJP's voice, is fighting from New Delhi seat once again and she spoke to DH's Shemin Joy on what is in store in the national capital.

BJP won all the seven seats in Delhi in 2014. Is it easy to repeat the feat again?

Yes. For a very long time, the country has not seen the work a government is capable of doing. A performing government will add to the sheen. So you have a leadership today in the form of Narendra Modi so far as the government machinery is concerned. So far as within our party, you have somebody like Amit Shah who is in the control of party. Both are setting examples as to how politics has to be done within the party and outside the party. It is a well-oiled mechanism in which everybody is working.

As everybody is working hard, it will add to our vote share. Lot of people from other parties will also shift their votes share to BJP because they have now seen that things can happen. For example, we all dreamt of open defecation free India. But within a year, Modi government showed that these many toilets in a targeted fashion can be made, that many rail lines can be done, that many bank accounts can be opened, that many policies can be changed and that many people can benefit out of insurance. Country has never seen such kind of performance.

I will give you a small but very important example. Everybody wants a home. Earlier the figure was 25 lakh houses for a particular period of time. Today you know the number. During the same time span, it is three crore. From 25 lakh to three crore! See the jump. The quantum has increased, efficiency has increased, it is is a very efficient government. We stood by our promises. So we are winning. We didn't discriminated when the policies were implemented.

Are you aided by the fact that there is no alliance between AAP and Congress? What impact it would have on BJP prospects?

I don't agree with that. I think there is a hidden alliance between AAP and Congress. They have fielded candidates as they wanted the other one to win. It is for this reason a few things have happened and that is how things are shaping up.

So you are saying there is no triangular fight? So who is your prominent opponent, Congress or AAP?

It is a triangular fight for public, internal adjustment whatever be.

One of the main issues raised by AAP is statehood. Will this have an echo in Delhi polls?

It will not have an echo in Delhi because Delhiites have seen the way things are possible, what is an efficient person and what is an inefficient person. The problems of Delhi are more of mundane in nature like water, power, cleanliness, pollution etc. They all know if you try and kill municipal bodies by not giving adequate funds people are not going to take it lightly. If you think you are going to play that dirty a politics, people are not going to appreciate. People appreciate a cleaner form of government.

Now juxtapose this question with how the Centre has operated. Till 2014 when BJP was not in power, the budgetary allocation for states used to be 32% of the tax collected. Interestingly, when Modi came to power and he had worked as a Chief Minister, so he understood the problems of a Chief Minister as how the implementation of schemes have to be done on the ground. So the allocation of the funds have been increased to 42% to states.

Should he have continued by depriving the state governments saying that Delhi is not under me and so, I should decrease the allocation. The answer is you don't do these things because state is part of the union. We may have politics of different nature. But we all are working for the country and mother India needs to be protected no matter who does it. If you want to do it, do it well. Whether it is Kerala or Delhi, both got 42% allocation, which means BJP don't discriminate when you make policies.

On the eve of elections, a sitting BJP MP Udit Raj, who was denied ticket, has joined Congress. What is your take?

I can't say anything. These are individual choices and individual ambitions. Individuals can have their own point of view. I am not getting into that. But calling BJP is anti-Dalit, that is wrong. Party has fielded Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election. BJP has the maximum number of Dalit MPs.

Half of the election is over. There is a talk that BJP won't repeat the 2014 results. How confident is BJP?

I don't agree with that. BJP is doing much better. People sitting in Delhi can't assess that. I am so sure that their assessments like every other election will fall flat. May be just round the corner BJP starts winning, the interviews will also change.

What is your take on opposition unity? Do you think in states, the opposition is able to challenge BJP?

They are not. There is no coherence of ideology. Coherence of ideology is not possible because when you do things without right intent, people see through that. Now this is being done in the form of an opportunist politics and when you play that, people see through that. People in this country have seen that it is actually a 'maha-milavat' coalition. It is a mix up of all opposing ideology. There was a funny Whatsapp message going on asking how safe is Mayawati with Mulayam Singh Yadav. She is the same person who was assaulted, abused and badly behaved by the goons of Samajwadi Party at that time. Today, she can share dais with him! If it is not opportunistic politics, what else?

In the midst of electioneering, you were also busy with a contempt notice against Congress president Rahul Gandhi. But hasn't the 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' (The watchman is a thief) campaign hit BJP nerves?

No, it has not. If somebody tells a lie, that lie needs to be exposed and the country has to know. That lie is coming from a person whose 'khandaan'(family) is 'chor' (thief). Out of four people in the family, three are on bail on grounds of fraud, on grounds of not paying taxes. Who is the thief? People will decide. If you run a campaign of this nature, which is political, you can say that.

You keep on say that 'Chowkidar Chor Hai', then we will keep on saying 'Khandan Chor Hai (The (Gandhi) Family is Thief). We can keep on doing that. That is one way of doing that. Dragging the name of Supreme Court in the campaign is absolutely uncalled for. Only a person who understands administration, who understands administration of justice and who has some respect for Constitutional bodies will understand. But this person does not understand.

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(Published 26 April 2019, 03:41 IST)

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