Opposition parties trying to create animosity between northern and southern States, alleges Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addresses opposition's 'hate politics,' emphasizes BJP's national presence and strong leadership under Modi.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has urged the Opposition party leaders to restrain from ‘hate politics’ and focus on core issues. The Opposition parties are trying to project BJP as a political party from the northern belt and the party has no interest in the southern States. “This is baseless and by saying so they are trying to create animosity between northern and southern States,” he said.

He was addressing a group of intellectuals in Visakhapatnam city at a meeting organised by the BJP here on Tuesday.

“It is wrong to say that BJP is a party from the north. We have formed governments in the east and also in the west and we have a formidable presence in both the regions. In the southern side, we have formed governments in Karnataka. So how can the opposition make such a statement? We have our presence in Telangana and in Andhra Pradesh and very shortly we will also form our government in Andhra Pradesh,” said Mr. Rajnath.

It is agreed that the southern States are prosperous and the GSDP is higher. But we can always synergise the capital strength of the north and intellectual abilities of the south to form a stronger India, he said.

Talking about the success mantra of BJP, he said, “We believe in deeds and not words. We promised to scrap Article 370 in Kashmir and we did it. We promised the scrapping of ‘Triple Talaq’ and we did it. Uttarakhand has already imposed ‘universal civil code’ and we will now do it across the country. We promised the construction of ‘Ram Mandir’ and we did it. We believe in the politics of justice for humanity and we are not communal, as projected by the opposition.”

Talking about the strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Defence Minister pointed out that earlier India was not heard in any international forum and not taken seriously. Now India speaks and the world listens.

“The 21st century belongs to Bharat and from holding the 11th economic position in 2014, we have jumped to the fifth position and by 2027 we will be in the third position. Economic experts say that by 2070 India will the number one developed nation, but the PM is working towards making India the number one by 2047,” said Mr. Rajnath.