Confident of bigger win

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would be re-elected with an even bigger majority in parliament in 2019, dismissing opposition attempts to rouse opinion against his government for failing to deliver on promises of swift economic development and more jobs for young people.

Modi told the Times of India in an interview published yesterday that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government is committed to improving the lives of all citizens regardless of faith.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Concerns have grown that his administration has been unable to rein in right-wing fringe groups that are trying to undermine India's secular constitution by targeting the nation's large Muslim minority.

"We will definitely get more seats than we got the last time and I am confident that we will break all records of the seats won by NDA (National Democratic Alliance) in the past and achieve greater glory.

"The people are with us and we have nothing to fear," Modi told the newspaper in an email interview.

Opinion polls show he remains the front runner to win another five-year term, but the party has suffered reverses in some local elections in the past few months that have energized the opposition, reported Reuters.

The PM strongly condemned mob lynchings as a crime irrespective of motives, vowed to protect honest business and punish the corrupt and asserted that his government would keep its promise to complete the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

He took on Congress over the NRC in Assam, saying its vote-bank politics prevented it from implementing accords the party itself concluded in 1972 and 1982 when it was in office. “Congress is guilty of criminal negligence on this count,” he said.

On the concerns being raised over incidents of mob violence, including cow vigilantism, he underlined that these incidents need to be condemned in the strongest voice. “My government is fully committed to upholding the rule of law and protecting the life and liberty of every citizen... No person can, under any circumstances, take the law into his or her hand and commit violence,” he said.

Modi said the government is working actively against economic absconders, and the recent law to confiscate their properties will deliver results “Anyone who fraudulently takes public money and absconds shall not be spared,” he said.

On Congress' allegations of corruption in Rafale deal, he said the party had concocted falsehoods and was repeating them. “It is a government-to-government agreement, it is an honest and transparent deal. All else is nothing but propaganda to undermine national interest.”

Modi called for greater democracy and the restoration of an independent judiciary in the Maldives, reported AFP.

The Indian Ocean archipelago nation has been in turmoil in recent months, with strongman President Abdulla Yameen jailing or forcing into exile all of his main opponents.

"We hope that (the) Maldives government will ensure early resumption of the political process and allow democratic institutions, including the judiciary to function independently in a fair and transparent manner," the Indian prime minister said.

"This will create (a) conducive environment for the presidential elections."

Responding to Congress' charge that the government had failed to create jobs, Modi said more than 45 lakh formal jobs were created between September 2017 and April 2018 and EPFO data indicated that 70 lakh jobs were created last year.

He also said growth in tourism, loans under Mudra, start-ups and construction is bound to have created employment.