Maintaining that he believes “people of my country will vote for me”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday “the day I do Hindu-Muslim, I will be unworthy of public life” and “it is my resolve” that “I will not do Hindu-Muslim”. Modi made these remarks in an interview to TV channel News18 India — he posted clips of the interview on X — in Varanasi on the day he filed his nomination papers, seeking a third consecutive Lok Sabha term from the constituency. His remarks came days after his April 21 speech in Banswara in Rajasthan where, while attacking the Congress, he said, “Pehle jab unki sarkar thi, unhone kaha tha ki desh ki sampatti par pehla adhikar Musalmanon ka hai. Iska matlab, ye sampatti ikhatti karke kisko baatenge? Jinke zyada bachche hain unko baatenge, ghuspaithiyon ko baatenge. Kya aapke mehnat ki kamayi ka paisa ghuspaithiyon ko diya jayega? Aapko manzoor hai yeh? (Earlier, when they were in power, they had said Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. That means, who will they distribute this wealth to? They will give it to those who have more children, to infiltrators. Should your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators? Do you agree with this?).” In that speech, he had also said, “The Congress manifesto says they will take stock of the gold of mothers and daughters, and then they will distribute that wealth. And they will distribute it among those whom Manmohan Singh’s government had said: Muslims have the first right to wealth. Brothers and sisters, this Urban Naxal thinking will not spare even the mangalsutras of my mothers and sisters.” His Banswara speech was flagged by the Congress, CPI and CPI (M-L) in their complaints to the Election Commission that led to a notice being issued to the BJP president. In the interview Tuesday, the Prime Minister said, “I have neither said Hindu or Muslim. I have said you should have as many children as you can support. Don’t create a situation where the government has to (support).” Asked whether Muslims will vote for him and whether he needed their votes, he said, “Main ye maanta hoon ki mere desh ke log mujhe vote denge. Main jis din Hindu-Musalman karoonga na, uss din main sarvajanik jeevan mei rehne yogya nahin rahoonga. Aur main Hindu-Musalman nahin karoonga. Ye mera sankalp hai (I believe that people of my country will vote for me. The day I do Hindu-Muslim, I will be unworthy of public life. And I will not do Hindu-Muslim. It is my resolve). “If I give houses, I talk about saturation. 100-percent delivery. This means that if there are 200 homes in a village, what community, what caste, what religion – No. If there are 60 labharthis (beneficiaries) in those 200 houses, all 60 should get it. And 100-percent saturation is social justice and true secularism. And there is no chance of corruption in it. You know that if another person got it this Monday, I will get it next Monday,” he said. On Tuesday, Modi filed his nomination for the Varanasi seat at the District Collectorate. He was accompanied by Pandit Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid who had decided the date and time for the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. District Magistrate S Rajalingam collected the papers from Modi who, in a post later on X, said, “Filed my nomination papers as a candidate for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. It is an honour to serve the people of this historic seat. With the blessings of the people, there have been remarkable achievements over the last decade. This pace of work will get even faster in the times to come.” Among those at the Collectorate premises for Modi’s nomination were BJP president J P Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, party state president Bhupendra Chaudhary, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and a host of NDA leaders including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, TDP leader and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan. The proposers for Modi were Pandit Dravid, party workers and leaders Sanjay Sonkar, Lalchand Kushwaha and Baijnath Patel. While Sonkar is a Dalit, Patel and Khushwaha are OBC while Dravid is a Brahmin. Earlier, Modi began his day by offering prayers at the Dashashwamedh Ghat and then visited the Kaal Bhairav temple.
