In a rare interview to Reuters news agency in his official residence in Gandhinagar, the first since he was appointed the chief of BJP election campaign committee in June, Modi was asked if it was frustrating when many people define him by 2002.
He responded by saying that he would feel guilty if he had done something wrong. "Frustration comes when you think 'I got caught. I was stealing and I got caught.' That's not my case."
"Another thing, any person if we are driving a car, we are a driver, and someone else is driving a car and we're sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will be painful or not? Of course, it is. If I'm a chief minister or not, I'm a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad."
"Absolutely. However much brainpower the Supreme Being has given us, however much experience I've got, and whatever I had available in that situation and this is what the SIT had investigated," he replied.
Answering a question about being regarded as a polarising figure, Modi cited the example of Democrats and Republicans in the US to emphasise that polarisation was "democracy's basic nature".