Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party’s MPs and MLAs not to speak to the media out of turn, The Hindu reported.
“The levers of governance should be moved for issues of larger public interest, keeping the principle of sarvajan hitaaya, sarvajan sukhaaya [for everyone’s benefit and happiness] rather than to push individual interests,” the prime minister told his party colleagues in an address telecast on his personal NaMo application. “If you push individual interests you will find the levers of governance stuck, whereas it will move for larger interests.”
Mod warned them against commenting on “every sociopolitical or cultural matter”. The media would report only the “masala [catchy] bits”, he added.
“We make mistakes and give masala to the media...as if we are great social scientists and experts to analyse issues...,” NDTV quoted Modi as saying. “The moment you see a camera you start speaking. So this half-baked stuff is picked up.”
The prime minister said that designated spokespersons would comment on matters concerning the party. “If everyone comments on everything then the conversation around subjects change, this harms the country, the party and hurts our own personal image,” Modi told his colleagues. “In the last few years I saw that in the 16th Lok Sabha there were eight to 10 MPs from our party who had this habit but after I spoke to them they desisted from it and the party was spared any humiliation in public as a result.”
Modi also talked about the upcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka – which will be held on May 12 – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. He said those who say that the BJP came to power because of the Congress’ mistakes are making a false assumption. “Our party, its leaders and workers have connected with a large swathe of the country consistently, over many years,” he said. “We have broken the myths impeding our party’s expansion, we were called a brahmin-baniya party [a party supported by Brahmins and traders], of the cities, of just North India.”
The BJP has the largest number of Dalit MPs, MPs from tribal communities and elected representatives from Other Backward Classes, the prime minister claimed, adding that the party reflects the aspirations of a large part of the country.
The party has received massive flak recently after a BJP leader allegedly raped a woman in Unnao, and a child was murdered after allegedly being raped in Kathua, Kashmir. Some party leaders have also recently made controversial remarks about rape and women.
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