Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari recently appeared in a Marathi talk show. In the show, he said that BJP, before 2014, made tall and unrealistic promises never thinking that they would actually come to power.
This has caused the party a major embarrassment and the opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, posted the particular snippet from the program on Twitter. In the caption to the video, Rahul Gandhi wrote that you are right (Gadkari). Even the people think that the BJP used their dreams and faith for the party’s gain to come to power.”
सही फ़रमाया, जनता भी यही सोचती है कि सरकार ने लोगों के सपनों और उनके भरोसे को अपने लोभ का शिकार बनाया है| pic.twitter.com/zhlKTrKHgU
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 9, 2018
“People remind of our promises, we laugh and move on”
On the show which was aired earlier this month had Nitin Gadkari as a guest with actor Nana Patekar. Gadkari during the show said, “We were very confident that we can never come to power. So our people suggested us to make tall promises. If we don’t come to power, we won’t be responsible anyway. Now people remind us of our promises…we just laugh and move on”.
While answering another question, Gadkari admitted that the party needs to be more open and transparent to the public.
In past too, Gadkari’s comments have left the party red-faced. At an event held at New Delhi, he was taking questions. Journalist Barkha Dutt asked him why his party members were moving from the grave issues and rather “entangled in non-productive issues” like that of beef-eating, etc. To this Gadkari replied that the party has for long been in opposition, so it would take some time to move from that mentality.
https://www.facebook.com/rajiv.personal/posts/10160699467305176
In August, when there were ongoing agitations by the Marathas for reservation, Gadkari said that there are no jobs. He said, “Let’s us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs.”
The Logical Indian take
While union minister might have tried to make light of the situation by saying that BJP was, in fact, making unrealistic promises, but this statement cannot be passed as just another candid remark. People voted BJP to power with a belief that their grievances and issues will be dealt with. But here we have a senior leader of the party saying things like there are no jobs, we are still in opposition mentality, etc is rather alarming.
