Devendra Fadnavis in Aap Ki Adalat: Highlights
As we head into the Lok Sabha elections 2019, India TV brings you a special series of the nation's most beloved news show - Aap Ki Adalat. To cut through the political blitzkrieg, India TV Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma has taken the show to towns and cities across the nation. In the latest edition of the Election Special Aap Ki Adalat, Rajat Sharma put Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the dock.
Here are the highlights from India TV's special show Aap Ki Adalat with Devendra Fadnavis:
Watch full episode:
#On Raj Thackeray
The chief minister described Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray as "a frustrated politician" and said that the Congress-NCP alliance was manipulating him. "Raj Thackeray is no doubt a fine orator, but he has used his tongue at the wrong time and at the wrong place. MNS could have emerged as a big political force, but people of Maharashtrahave now lost interest in his party. The party has failed to win seats in assembly, panchayat and zilla parishad polls."
"There is no chance of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray joining hands in the near future", Fadnavis added.
#On Sujay Vikhye Patil and Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil joining BJP
On young politicians Sujay Vikhye Patil and Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil joining BJP, Fadnavis said: "The new generation in the traditional families of Congress and NCP leaders has taken a liking to the BJP. They have been attracted by Modi. That is why they are leaving their political legacies to join our party."
#On BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra
Fadnavis claimed that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance would "sweep" all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and will also "sweep" the assembly elections scheduled to be held in October this year. He described the BJP-SS combination as "a natural alliance", while criticizing the Congress-NCP combination as "an opportunistic alliance".
#On BJP using money power
Sharad Pawar's accusation that BJP using maximum money in polls is nothing but a joke. He is among few people who are credited for making money important in poll process: Fadnavis
#On Congress manifesto
"I cannot understand how a more than 100 years old party has done this. Congress should amend its manifesto and say that the anti-sedition law shall stay."
#On anti-BJP campaign by artists
The number of people who criticise us is opposed by 100 times people who support us. India has a class of pseudo-secular people who criticise BJp or Modi to seem secular or global.
#On safforn terror
"I believe Hindus can never become terrorists. Conversely, no terrorist can be a Hindu. The very essence of Hindutva is tolerance. India never attacked any country in the past. It always provided refuge to outsiders who took asylum.
"In order to misguide a particular community, the Congress started the saffron terror narrative, but all those who have been accused of saffron terror have been acquitted by courts."
#On final solution to Kashmir problem
Lashing out at former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti for threatening that the last link of Kashmir with India will end if Articles 35A and 370 are removed from the Constitution, Fadnavis said: "For more than 50 years, we have been hearing such threats, and successive governments at the Centre had been refraining from taking strong steps because of such threats. Time has now come to take stern steps against separatists.
"I believe that Modi has started taking strong steps in Kashmir. Like Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, who brought about the unconditional merger of 542 princely states in the Indian Union, Modi will also bring the Kashmir question to an end."
#On coalition government with PDP
Asked why his party BJP had run a coalition government with Mehbooba Mufti for three years in J&K, the Maharashtra CM replied: " Our president Amit Shah has already replied to it. We engaged Mehbooba in the political process because it was necessary to keep her party away from separatists. We shunned power ('thokar maar di") when we found that she was siding with separatists.
"Kashmir was, is and shall always remain an integral part of India. If Kashmiris can buy land in Mumbai without restrictions, Indians should also get the right to buy land in the Valley. We will never allow Kashmir to be delinked from India."
#On Article 370 and Article 35A
"We are trying to correct a historical mistake. When 542 princely states merged unconditionally during Sardar Patel's time, why was special status given to Kashmir?"
#On national security as poll issue
We urge young voters to remember Balakot because Congress manifesto seeks to take away the army's powers. Why should national security not be a political issue?
