Narendra Modi is the only OBC leader with national identity: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

New Delhi, Jun 14: The BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is of the opinion that the Congress party is deliberately playing politics over ‘dead bodies' in Chhattisgarh. Naqvi rues the fact that instead of joining hands against Naxals, Congress is busy with political machinations.In an exclusive interview with www.indiatvnews.com, Naqvi said that today Narendra Modi is the only OBC leader who has a national identity and acceptability.Naqvi answered questions on a number of issues ranging from Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh to Modi's candidature for PM:Q: Congress is demanding the resignation of Raman Singh after the Chhattisgarh massacre. Why he should not resign on moral grounds?Naqvi: Congress is playing politics over ‘dead bodies' in Chhattisgarh. There should be no politics on Maoist attacks in Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and other parts of the country. This is an issue that is related to national and internal security. All political parties and the government should join hands and fight the Maoists together. If you remember correctly then these Maoists have killed around 300 innocent people in last 6 months. Almost 1800 security personnel have been killed. In West Midnapore of West Bengal, a train was blown off by these Maoists recently and more than 100 children and women were killed. Instead of doing self introspection, Congress is playing politics on this. Q: But the Congress is alleging that your government's entire focus was on Raman Singh's ‘Vikas Yatra' and adequate security was not provided to Congress party's ‘Parivartan Yatra'.Naqvi: What is adequate security? Was adequate security not given to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi? When the terrorists get the feeling that a friendly government is in power then they are emboldened to indulge in such acts. You need a proper system in place to check the recurrence of such acts. Now this UPA government allowed POTA to lapse and continued with the problematic IMDT act. Today Naxalism, Maoism and terrorism are the two sides of the same coin.Q: What are your views on Narendra Modi as PM?Naqvi: Narendra Modi is very acceptable, very popular and performing leader. Today the nation wants a popular and performing leader. The nation wants a Prime Minister who has reputation and who is not on deputation. Today we have a Prime Minister who has been sent on deputation by a super PM. BJP is fortunate that we have a long list of deserving PM candidates. Today there is unanimity in the country that the nation needs a leadership like that of Narendra Modi.Q: Narendra Modi belongs to OBC community. Do you plan to flaunt this in upcoming elections?Naqvi: Modi has great experience of organization. He has helped BJP in forming government in states like Haryana, Himachal, Punjab and other states. But It's fact that Narendra Modi is the only OBC leader who has a national identity and acceptability. Q: What about internal differences on PM candidate and Advani's personal ambitions?Naqvi: See, We in BJP have moved forward by holding hands of Atal Ji and Advani ji. He will always want us to give a government that will deliver good governance.Q: So you are saying that Advani ji is not in the PM race?Naqvi: Nobody's race has either begun or ended. There is no race in the party. There will be only one PM candidate and we'll decide the name by consensus.Q: What is the strategy behind sending Amit Shah to UP?Naqvi: Amit Shah is a very good and experienced leader. He has played significant role in Gujarat elections and that's why the party president Rajnath Singh has given him the responsibility of UP.Q: But there are serious allegations against Amit Shah and still you have given him a critical state like UP.Naqvi: What charges you are talking about? Has he committed any theft or heist? Is he a mafia? The charges against him are politically motivated. By that yardstick, all Congress Chief Minister should be in jail today because more than 50000 riots took place under Congress regime.Q: But the Congress says that you are trying to create communal polarization through Amit Shah in UP.Naqvi: Congress has no other issue to fall back on. Congress is deeply entrenched in scams, is wearing the garland of inflation and it's face is blackened with coal. They are not aware of the fact that nobody can emerge victorious by sitting on a mound of scams. Q: Do you think Varun Gandhi is a prospective CM in UP?Naqvi: No, absolutely not.Q: How many seats do you expect from UP in coming parliamentary elections?Naqvi: We'll cross 50 seats in UP. BJP is the only option in BJP. It's going to be a straight fight between Congress and BJP? Because SP and BSP are just proxies for Congress and they come to the rescue of Congress whenever it's needed. They are ‘changu-mangu' of Congress. In that case why will the electorate vote for them. Why won't they vote directly for Congress?Q: What about reservations on part of your allies so far as your PM candidate is concerned?Naqvi: See, we gave stability to coalition culture in this country. We ran a coalition of 24-25 parties under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Vajpayee government ran successfully on the basis of a Common Minimum Programme (CMP). In case of UPA, they have no CMP. Their only CMP is corruption and there is race amongst its constituents as to who is the biggest champion of corruption. Our allies share their views with us in a democratic manner on different issues and we discuss everything. We'll form the government on a common programme. But this is not the case with UPA. They all have different agendas. Q: What are the expansion plans for NDA? You are already left with just a few constituents in NDA.Naqvi: NDA will have 8-9 pre-poll allies before 2014 general elections. And nothing can be said at this moment about post-poll allies.Q: Congress is aggressively going ahead with ‘Bharat Nirman' ads and people are comparing them with your ‘India Shining' campaign. How would you react to them? Naqvi: This is ‘Bhrashtachar Nirman' and not ‘Bharat Nirman'. Was 2Gscam , commonwealth scam , coal scam, helicopter scam and many other scams a part of Bharat Nirman? Was defreezing Quattrochi's accounts Bharat Nirman? As far as our ‘India shining' campaign was concerned, it was based on achievements. We had created revolution in the field of communication. We created highways, improvised railways connectivity. We had a robust economy then. At that time the inflation was just 3 percent but today it has touched 12 percent. Today a baby is born with a debt of Rs 18000.Q. What will be your counter slogan to UPA's Bharat Nirman?Naqvi: Sabka Saath, sabka vikas. Good governance is our commitment.Q. And Why should people vote for BJP in 2014?Naqvi: People are tired of bad governance. They have also seen our good governance. So now they have to judge and take a call.[ Please note that this interview was conducted before Goa meet of BJP's national executive]