Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday promised that all those invovled in the AgustaWestland chopper scam will be punished.
Addressing election rallies in Chennai and Hosur town in Tamil Nadu, Modi said the scandal had become public after the BJP took power in New Delhi in 2014.
Asking the people whether they have any relatives in Italy, Modi said: "I don't have any relatives in Italy. Nor have I visted Italy."
But people in Italy have said there was corruption in the chopper deal and a court there had punished names of those involved, he said.
Claiming that Tamil Nadu was steeped in corruption, Modi said the BJP was the alternative to the two Dravidian parties in the state.
"For the first time in Tamil Nadu elections, there is an alternative in the form of BJP."
He said the Tamil Nadu government was corrupt but politicians were not ashamed.
"The election this time is not about who will win but who will save Tamil Nadu," he remarked.
Referring to the floods in Chennai in December, Modi said it was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadres who helped the people at the time of the crisis.
Modi said he was the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Jaffna in Sri Lanka and added that his government would wipe the tears of Sri Lankan Tamils.
According to him, 30,000 of the 50,000 houses to be built with Indian assistance in Sri Lanka had been handed over to the Tamils there.
Referring to the release of Father Alexis Prem Kumar from Taliban's custody, Modi said his sister did not believe when I called her and said: "I am Narendra Modi speaking."
"I told her that her brother will be back in India in two-and-a-half hours.
"This is an example of how a people-friendly government functions," he said
Modi said the BJP-run central government was two years old but there was no corruption charge against it.
He said his government auctioned spectrum and the money went to the government coffers.
Today, there was no corruption in mining and supply of coal unlike in the past, he said. "We are taking the nation on the correct path."
The prime minister said since the BJP came to power in New Delhi, no chief minister writes a letter to him for urea allocation.
All the previous central governments said they were helpless in arresting corruption in urea.
"We added neem in urea and hence it is not possible for other chemical companies to use it," he added.
He said the central government also ended corruption in the cooking gas subsidy by directly crediting the subsidy amount into consumers' bank account.
"After we came to power we enabled the poor to open bank accounts.
"With the formation of Mudhra Bank, without security or guarantee small-time businessmen can get loans. As a result of 3.5 crore small businessmen were lent around Rs.1.30 lakh crore by Mudhra Bank," Modi said.
Modi said he would bring all the central government schemes like Stand-up India, Start-up India and others to Tamil Nadu if the BJP was voted to power in the state.
According to him, only the Indian economy was registering growth. He said the foreign direct investment (FDI) had grown 40 percent.
--IANS
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