New Delhi (Agency): As political tensions rise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday issued a stern warning to the corrupt, promising, “I will take every scamster to task.” The Prime Minister offered these strong words while refraining from pointing out any specific individuals.
These remarks arrive in the wake of a meeting earlier this month in Patna where opposition party leaders resolved to challenge the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the forthcoming elections. Speaking at a gathering of BJP booth workers in Madhya Pradesh, where elections are slated for later this year, PM Modi declared, “All the corrupt politicians joined their hands in Patna’s meeting. Opposition is trying to escape the anti-scam crackdown. The corrupt leaders are trying to save each other.”
PM Modi castigated the large-scale meeting held in Patna on June 23rd, which saw representation from more than 15 opposition parties. He pledged that local BJP workers will reveal the opposition’s corruption, stating, “The party booth workers will expose their corruption at a village level. They will let people know about their (opposition) real faces. People of this country have an awareness of what was the real agenda behind opposition leaders in getting together at a platform.”
The Prime Minister drew attention to the emerging buzzword of “guarantee” in the current political discourse. “Nowadays a new word is being heard, ‘guarantee’, but what is the guarantee all about? The guarantee is for corruption. The guarantee is about scams worth lakhs of crores. The identity of such opposition leaders is to guarantee a scam worth Rs 20 lakh crore,” PM Modi criticized.
Reiterating his commitment to combating corruption, PM Modi assured, “I guarantee you, I will not spare any of them,” in his address to BJP booth-level workers in Bhopal. “If they (the opposition) have the guarantee of scams and corruption then I also have one guarantee for all of you and it is I will not spare any of those who are involved in the corruption…,” he pledged.
The aforementioned opposition meeting in Patna was orchestrated by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who recently parted ways with the BJP to form a coalition with his political adversary Lalu Prasad Yadav. This move is seen as laying the groundwork for a ‘Mahagathbandhan 2.0’ ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Lastly, responding to the allegations made by opposition leaders of “misusing” investigative agencies for political purposes, PM Modi retorted, “Today when action is being taken against them (Opposition), they are banding together and forming a unity.”
Earlier on the same day, PM Modi had also flagged off five Vande Bharat Express trains from the Rani Kamalapati Railway Station in Bhopal, taking time to interact with the crew and some children on board before the ceremony.