Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh
Hitting out at the Opposition for accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of corruption in Rafale deal, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said no one can question Modi's honesty and rival parties should desist from "hoodwinking and misleading" the people.
Singh said those levelling "baseless and unfounded" allegations should answer that Modi would amass wealth "for whom, his wife, children? Who is there? Whom will he give it to?"
"I feel very hurt. I have known Modi for long... you can level other allegations if you want -- that Modi has worked less or he could have done more -- but no one can raise questions on the prime minister's honesty and intention.
You should not do politics by misleading people," the minister said at an interaction with intellectuals to seek suggestions for the BJP's Sankalp Patra (manifesto) for the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Asserting that there was no blot of corruption on any of the BJP leaders including prime ministers and chief ministers, he said party patriarch L K Advani had set an example by resigning when allegations were levelled against him.
"Some said prime facie there is case, so our Advaniji had set an example by quitting. He said he won't enter Parliament till his name is cleared. This is called politics," he said.
Singh was referring to Advani resigning as an MP in 1996 following allegations of his involvement in the infamous Hawala scam.
BJP President Amit Shah had on February 3 last launched the month-long exercise 'Bharat ke mann ki baat, Modi ke saath' to seek suggestions from 10 crore people across the country.
BJP's general secretary and in-charge of Bihar Bhupendra Yadav, state ministers-- Nand Kishore Yadav and Prem Kumar-- were also present at the function which was moderated by former minister Nitish Mishra.
Politics should not be done on the basis of propagating falsehood and hoodwinking people, rather it should be guided by following truth and truth alone, Singh said.
"Politicians should talk in a measured language... they should speak the truth. Dont' try to achieve success by deceiving the people of the country," he said.
Lamenting the "crisis of credibility" pervading the country's politics, he said that he has taken it as a challenge.
"We will form the government at the Centre under Narendra Modi by overcoming the challenges," he said.
Singh said, "Politics depends a lot on the kind of people in leadership position. Politics becomes 'bhakti' (devotion) if it goes into the hands of Lord Rama, similarly it turns into 'yukti' (strategy) if it is led by Lord Krishna, 'shakti' if it is handled by Mahtama Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose.
"Politics becomes 'mukti' (liberation) if it goes into the hands of revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Khudiram Bose."
However, politics becomes means "to acquire sampatti (property) if it is handled by greedy and later becomes Vipatti (hardship) for such people".
Listing the ND government's achievements, Singh said that out of world's 10 largest economy, India has jumped to "fifth position as compared to ninth earlier.
Besides it has improved its position to 77th from 142nd in terms of Ease of Doing Business in just past four-and-a-half years, he said and exuded confidence that the country would be among top three largest economies in the next 10 years.
Earlier, during 2004-10 under UPA rule, the GDP growth rate was half of the rate of inflation whereas it is for the first time in Independent India that rate of inflation is half of the GDP growth, he said.
