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Against the backdrop of denial of permission for his rally in Varanasi, Narendra Modi on Thursday said he and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were being "troubled" by the Election Commission (EC) and sought an answer from the the poll body.
"It is up to the EC to answer why we are being troubled. Specifically, why a single party is being troubled, why Modi is being troubled. A lot has happened to me but I don't want to get into it right now. Let the EC take a decision," said the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. His comment came a day after the EC denied permission for his rally in Varanasi where he is contesting for the Lok Sabha polls.
At the same time, he said he was not targeting the EC, saying he had not uttered a single word against it. He said it was his party, which had written letters to the poll body, seeking a detailed explanation. "I cannot say much about this (anger at EC) because the developments are taking place in Varanasi," he told the Times Now TV channel, referring to the protests being staged by his colleagues, including Arun Jaitley, in Varanasi against the denial of permission for his rally.
Jaitley, a close Modi aide, has been in the forefront of the BJP's attack on the local EC officials and has written to the EC a number of times on the issue. The EC dismissed the allegations of the "lack of neutrality".
Asked why he gave a "caste spin" to Priyanka Gandhi's neech rajniti (low-level politics) barb at him, he clarified the meaning of the word in Gujarati, the language he was most "familiar" with, approximated with the response he had given.
"Let's assume I was misunderstood. But even their intention behind such usage of the words was wrong," Modi said, targeting Priyanka.
He said he had acted "tough" internally against party leaders like close aide Amit Shah and Bihar leader Giriraj Singh for their remarks targeting Muslims, saying that was why such statements had stopped.
"I was tough against this and that is why it stopped. If I didn't oppose it through the internal mechanism, don't you think it would have continued? Hasn't it stopped? Did it stop or not? That means I have taken action and you can understand," he said.
Asked if his attacks on Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief and Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa during the poll campaign might have harmed any future alliance in case the BJP-led National Democratic Front did not get a majority, he said: "Politics isn't conducted on the basis of what is said in the course of election campaigns." He, however, said BJP would get a clear majority and form the "strongest and most stable government" since the Rajiv Gandhi-led government in 1984.
Modi rejected allegations that he was discriminating among people seeking shelter in India on religious grounds. The BJP manifesto's mention of India being a "natural home to persecuted Hindus" included people of different faiths, but of Indian origin, as Hinduism was not a religion but "a way of life", he argued quoting a Supreme Court judgment. "Hinduism is as a way of life and not a religion. We have nothing to do with it. We don't expect that Hinduism is a religion. Hinduism is a way of life."
Hinting at taking a tough stand against Pakistan if he becomes the prime minister, he said it was not possible to have discussions amidst bomb blasts and gunshots. "Do you think it is possible to have a discussion amidst the deafening noise of bomb blasts and gunshots? So to have a reasonable discussion, first the blasts and gunshots have to stop," he said.
