Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Nitin Gadkari on Saturday (September 14, 2024) shared past incidents where a senior leader from an opposition party had offered him support to contest for the Prime Ministerial post but he declined the offer.
Mr. Gadkari was speaking at Anil Kumar Patrakarita Puraskar Samaroh organised by Vidarbha Gaurav Pratishthan in Nagpur on Saturday evening. “Becoming Prime Minister was not the goal of my life. I do not want to name anyone but I recall an incident when a person said, “Mr. Gadkari, if you are going to become a Prime Minister, we will support you.”
“I asked, why would they support me and why would I take their support?” Mr. Gadkari said without being specific on when exactly the incident happened and who was the opposition leader.
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“I am loyal to my conviction and my organisation. I am not going to compromise for any post because my conviction is most important to me. I think that this conviction is the biggest strength of our Indian democracy,” he added.
Underlining the importance of ethics in both journalism and politics, Mr. Gadkari said, “Democracy will be successful only when all the four pillars: judiciary, executive, legislature and media, follow ethics.”
Referring to one meeting with a senior Communist Party of India (CPI) functionary, Mr. Gadkari recalled his conversation with the leader when he talked about late A. B. Bardhan whom he referred as one of the tallest politicians from Nagpur and Vidarbha. “Hearing me, the communist leader was surprised and said that Mr. Bardhan was an opponent of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). I told him that no matter whether the person is opposition or not, one should alwats respect a person who opposes with honesty, because there is honesty in his opposition too. One who opposes with dishonesty deserves no respect. Comrade Bardhan was faithful to his ideology, we all respected him for that. Today, unfortunately, both politics and journalism lack such people.”
It is interesting to note that there were speculations about Nitin Gadkari’s name as a potential PM candidate during the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In 2014, he became the Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Minister of Shipping. In his second innings with the BJP, in 2019, Mr. Gadkari retained the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation were replaced with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises on May 31, 2019. In 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Gadkari won from Nagpur constituency.
Published - September 15, 2024 08:31 am IST
