Bengaluru: Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, and Lok Sabha MP from Dharwad constituency, Pralhad Joshi, has said 2023 would be a brighter and better year for the BJP.
In an exclusive interview with IANS, Joshi spoke on a number of issues, including opposition unity, the various claims of the Congress and the achievements of the Modi government, besides saying that the BJP will form a government with an absolute majority in his home state, in 2023.
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
IANS: Karnataka is one of the nine states where elections are to be held in 2023. How is the coming year expected to be for the BJP, in regard to the polls?
Joshi: 2023 will be even better than 2022. People everywhere, including in Karnataka, will support the BJP.
IANS: What is your assessment of the upcoming 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka, where the party failed to form a majority in the last held 2018 polls?
Joshi: BJP’s performance in 2023 will be much better as compared to 2022. We will form a government in the state with an absolute majority.
IANS: What, according to you, have been the biggest achievements of the government in 2022?
Joshi: Getting the chairmanship of G20, along with the more than 200 crore Covid vaccinations, are two of the biggest achievements.
India is the fastest-growing economy of the world and runs the largest food distribution programme for the welfare of the poor. The government’s achievements are far too many to count in such a short time.
IANS: While you are talking about the innumerable achievements of the government, the opposition parties, especially the Congress, have continuously attacked the saffron party, in terms of work. What is your comment on this?
Joshi: This is not new. They have been filled with negativity ever since Modi assumed power in 2014 as the Prime Minister. The Congress is not mentally ready to accept this fact.
IANS: Talks of opposition unity have come to the fore, be it Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar or Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao or Rahul Gandhi, all of them are against the Modi government?
Joshi: I would request all the opposition parties to unite as our PM Modi believes in the existence of a capable and strong opposition in a democracy.
IANS: Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and other Congress leaders have been talking about the legacy of the freedom movement. They claim that there has been no contribution of the BJP or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the movement, and that the battle was fought by the Congress.
Joshi: I would just like to say that the legacy that Congress claims is entirely false. The party that existed at the time of the freedom struggle was original, and the one that exists today is different, it is a duplicate one.
I ask the leaders that if today’s Congress is the Congress of the freedom movement, then why do they not mention leaders like Vallabhbhai Patel and Subhas Chandra Bose? Why is it that only the names of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are taken?
The party cannot become the Congress of the independence movement just by keeping the name. It cannot claim the legacy of leaders like Sardar Patel and Babasaheb Ambedkar.
IANS: You are the Parliamentary Affairs Minister. In 2022, the opposition parties constantly alleged that the government did not want to run the House. The government has not been running the house for 200 days in a year and Parliament sessions are adjourned ahead of time?
Joshi: As far as the premature end of the Parliament session is concerned, it was decided on the basis of the opposition’s demand, who made it a political issue later.
When the opposition asked for the winter session to end on December 23, we asked them to put the demand on official records.
It was then raised in the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting, on record, and was then accepted by the government.
