Jaipur: Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti today termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "messiah Indians had been waiting for to appear for a thousand years" who has solution to all their problems.
"Rs. 5000 crore were spent in the name of cleaning Ganga over the last 29 years but there were no results. Now, if I asked (former PM) Manmohan Singh, he would say "Mainu ki pata" (what do I know?).
"But for the first time, India has a PM who says "mainu sab pata hai" (I know everything) as he has answers to everything...all of India's problems," Bharti said at the launch of the Jal Kranti Abhiyan here on the World Environment Day today.
"Modi is a messiah Indians had been waiting for to appear for a thousand years," she said.
Dismissing the Opposition's charge of linking her work with the "saffron agenda", she said, "They see saffron agenda in Saraswati...Ganga (projects)... But I say this is an economic agenda to alleviate poverty and bring prosperity to people." "Both Hindus and Muslims live along the bank of the Ganga and the river is a source of livelihood to 50 crore people so where is saffron agenda in this?" she asked.