Everyone who wears saffron does not belong to BJP: Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: Senior minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Centre had never discriminated on the basis of caste, religion or language in its policies and processes, but “is being unfairly targeted by some people for violent incidents. They have happened even during the tenure of previous governments”.

The minister was reacting to the criticism over lynching by cow vigilantes at a panel discussion on Modinomics in New Delhi on Monday. He said the government had condemned the killings and made its stand clear on the issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues had spoken against the recent lynching.

These days, anyone dressed in saffron are linked to BJP and incidents of violence that happened more often during the tenure of previous governments are highlighted to bring a bad name to the NDA government, he claimed.

“Some people have been devastated after the BJP came to power in Delhi and nothing the government does will please them. Even if I polish the country with gold they won’t be happy. They have a problem with us, our ideology.”

“Everyone who wears bhagwa does not belong to BJP. Even when I was the party president several people turned up wearing saffron. Are they all BJP workers? Till we came to power, violence by people wearing bhagwa never made it to the headlines of English news,” the minister said. “(Narendra) Modiji and I have struggled to reach here. We know how to fight. You can be certain about our commitment to the country,” the minister said, adding that the government was looking at taking care of “gareeb, shoshit aur Dalit” and believed in improving lives through modernisation and technology.