Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 28 linked the Opposition’s attack on his government to the BJP’s emphatic electoral performances. He said the more the party registers victories, the more jittery the Opposition parties will become, leading to harsher attacks.
Mr. Modi was addressing a meeting of the BJP’s Parliamentary Party in New Delhi, the first such meeting since the second leg of the Budget Session began on March 14.
The session has been a washout so far over the Opposition’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue and the ruling party’s demand for an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks in the U.K. The protests by the Opposition have intensified following Mr. Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha after he was convicted by a Surat court in a defamation case.
“Prime Minister Modi said that he had already mentioned in his speeches earlier, especially after the BJP’s massive victory in Gujarat and later the northeastern States, that the Opposition attacks would get harsher,” an MP present at the meeting said.
The BJP and its allies retained power in Tripura and Nagaland, while in Meghalaya, the party again joined hands with the National People’s Party (NPP) to be part of the government.
The Parliamentary Party also felicitated Mr. Modi for the BJP’s performance in the northeastern States.
Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who briefed reporters after the closed-door meeting, said the Prime Minister asked the BJP MPs to participate in the social justice campaign to be held by the party’s OBC Morcha from April 6 to 14 and also to promote and publicise various government schemes for a month from May 15 (to mark the ninth anniversary of the Modi government) in their respective constituencies.
He said that politicians should work for non-political causes as well as they have a lot of impact on society. In this context, Mr. Modi noted the Gujarat government’s work for “beti bachao” (save daughters) when he was the Chief Minister and said it helped a lot in improving the gender ratio.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said Mr. Modi also asked the MPs to use the services of experts to learn new technologies, saying not knowing something should not be a reason for not using it.
