NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi today said he was prepared to “face defeat” but would not practice politics of identity.
He also offered to face a probe if any corruption allegations are leveled against him as Prime Minister.
“I will not make any appeal to Hindus or Muslims but to the entire 125 crore people of India. If it suits them, then it is fine. If it does not suit them, I am ready to face defeat in the elections, I am ready to be wiped out.
“My mantra is that all are one. I cannot accept a divide between brothers of the country in the name of secularism. In the name of secularism, the nation has been divided,” he told CNBC-TV18.
He was asked whether he would make an appeal to Muslims in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, from where he is contesting. He was also questioned on the objections of BJP over Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid when its own president Rajnath Singh had met Muslim clerics in Lucknow.
In his response, he said the objection was not to the meeting but to the “message” that was going out.
“We want Soniaji to meet Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, anybody. It is part of democracy….but a particular community was told whom to vote for. This is against Constitution and electoral laws. It is not wrong to meet but the message that has gone out is a matter of concern,” the BJP leader said.
The BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate said, if voted to power, he would give priority to preventing corruption in the future rather than “waste time on cleaning up old mess”.
In case charges of corruption are leveled against him in the capacity of Prime Minister, Modi said, “Professionally if there are any allegations against me, those cases should not get stuck but should continue. Modi should stop them.”
Modi also talked about dealing with criminalization of politics, saying his government would ask the Supreme Court to create a mechanism to fast-track pending cases against lawmakers.
Describing corruption as a “disease”, he said he would put in place a mechanism by which corruption could be prevented.
“My priority will be develop a system by which the scope of corruption is minimized. We have to decide either I should concentrate my efforts on preventing new corruption or to clean up the old mess. My conscience says that my focus should to be ensure that new mess (of corruption) is not created,” he said.
“We have to decide whether I should focus my energy on preventing new corruption or waste time on cleaning up old mess,” he added.
“If I create such a mechanism which has technology and transparency and all the preventive measures, we will address jointly the issue of corruption. That should not be political, otherwise the cause will be defeated and this disease will continue to increase,” he said. -PTI
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