NDA's religion is India: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday for the first time asserted that he was not running away from his “responsibility” to enforce his authority for containing communal forces .

He has been under fire for attacks on minorities and  controversial “ghar wapsi” programmes. This is Modi's second attempt to convince the Opposition within a span of a fortnight that his NDA government’s religion is “India first”. “My government's only religious book is the Indian Constitution; our only devotion is 'Bharat Bhakti', and our only prayer is 'welfare of all',” he said.

Earlier, speaking at a function organised by Christian bodies, Modi had said his government would not allow any religious group, belonging to majority or minority communities, to incite hatred, “overtly or covertly”.

Conceding that he has often faced questions, Modi, in his reply to a debate on the President's Address in the Lok Sabha, said as prime minister it was his responsibility to check ridiculous statements by leaders evoking religious sentiments.  

Though Modi had reprimanded BJP leaders, such as MPs Sakshi Maharaj and Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti, and Yogi Adityanath, he had failed to rein in motormouths from his party’s associated groups, including the RSS and the VHP, giving an impression that he was not serious about checking Hindutva agenda.

“Nobody has the right to discriminate on the basis of religion. No one has the right to take the law into his hands,” said Modi on Friday between disruptions from Opposition leaders, who shouting: “Tell this to the RSS and the VHP”.

Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy moved an amendment that the government had failed to check the RSS and the VHP from threatening the country's secular fabric, and sought voting on it. However, it was shot down for want of numbers, given that Speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced that subject to correction, only 61 voted “Yes”, 203 pressed “No”, and four abstained from the polling. 

Interestingly, some BJD MPs, including Bhartruhari Mahtab and Prasanna Kumar Patasani, and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti walked out before the voting started in the Lower House.

Prior to that, the prime minister recalled his October 27, 2013, Patna rally, rocked by bomb blasts.  Saying that people often made fun of him, that he would get visa after entry to Parliament, Modi said apart from fulfilling bilateral commitments, he was meeting experts to solve problems faced by the country's poor. 

For instance, he met a Nobel laureate in Japan to ascertain if his pioneering stem cell research could be used to find solutions to an incurable life-threatening disease tribals are facing.