BJP govt under Atal Bihari Vajpayee elected President from minority community at the first chance it got, says PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the NDA regime under former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee elected President from the minority community at the first chance it got. He was referring to former President APJ Abdul Kalam.

PM Modi was speaking in an exclusive interview to News18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, News18 Kannada Editor, Hariprasad, and News18 Lokmat Anchor Vilas Bade.

The PM also said the NDA “thought process” was behind India getting its first Adivasi President.  “How did our country get the first Adivasi President? Through our thought process. We got three chances to elect the President of India. Once during Atal-ji's time, twice during my tenure. Who did we elect the first time? First, we made a member of the minority community, Abdul Kalam. Then I made a Dalit (Ramnath Kovind), then an Adivasi woman (Droupadi Murmu). Our actions show our thought process,” said the PM.

The PM denied the Congress allegation that there was lack of OBC representation in the system. “These are their sins. It is their (Congress’) sins that the country is paying for. If they had followed secularism in the true sense, had done social justice in the true sense, not done vote bank politics, then they would not have had to roam around with fake papers today. I believe that whatever I have been doing for the past 10 years, the results will be such that whatever questions are asked, we will be able to answer them, based on our actions,” said PM Modi.

Alleging that in 1998 , India’s per capita GDP was around 30 percent, the PM credited Vajpayee  for boosting the figure. “From 1998 to 2004, Atal ji took this figure from 30 percent to 35 percent. It was a good progress. But unfortunately, in 2004, this khichdi company came and this khichdi company ruined the work of Atal ji. They  (Congress) brought the number down from 35 to 30 percent. All these countries (in IMF) performed better than India. During the UPA regime, India became poorer compared to the other countries in the developing world,” he told News18.

According to the PM, the situation improved once the NDA government assumed power in 2014. “Till 2019, you will be happy to know that we took the figure to 37 percent. And when I reached the year 2024, this figure was 42 percent. That means our income has grown very fast as compared to other countries of the world,” he said.

Corrigendum: An earlier version of the story had misquoted the Prime Minister. We deeply regret the error.