Even a single incident is one too many: Modi on lynchings, rapes

"Even a single incident is one too many and deeply unfortunate," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday, finally breaking his silence on the spate of lynchings and rapes in recent times. He and his party have been pilloried for them.

"My party and I have spoken in clear words, on multiple occasions against such actions and such a mindset. It is all on record," Modi said. "Everyone should rise above politics to ensure peace and unity in our society," Modi added.

Modi made his freewheeling comments — other than the lynchings and rapes, he spoke on a number of issues including Assam's NRC, jobs, the Goods and Services Tax, Rahul Gandhi and his hug, and the mahagatbandhan that is ranging up against him — in an interview to ANI.

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On the NRC, he said, "I want to assure the people that no citizen of India will have to leave the country".

He said that more than 1 crore jobs have been created in the past year alone. "Thus," he added, "the campaign that jobs have not been created must come to a halt."

He said that "reservation is here to stay. Let there be no doubts about it", when he was asked whether there had been any thinking on doing away with caste-based reservations.

He explained why the BJP had walked out of its alliance with the PDP in Kashmir:

And he said "We hope that Pakistan would work for a safe, secure, stable and prosperous region, free from terror and violence."

Like he tends to, he made special mention of Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

"The Congress President tried his best to provoke people against GST during Gujarat elections, why did the people reject him?" Modi asked. (Rahul had nicknamed the Goods and Services Tax as the "Gabbar Singh Tax".)

And on Rahul famously hugging Modi in Parliament during the no-confidence motion, he said, "It is for you to judge whether it was a childish act or not."

But he said fairly clearly what he thought the answer was, saying, "And if you are unable to decide, watch the wink and you will get the answer."

Modi also pointed to the recent no-confidence motion against his government, and the election of the deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. (The government sailed through the motion and in the election, the NDA's Harivansh Narayan Singh beat the Congress's BK Hariprasad.)

"Outcome of these events should indicate which coalition is intact and which is falling apart," said Modi.

"The Mahagathbandhan is about dynasties, not about development. The only question is whether they will break up before the election or after!" he added.

"In fact,we got support even from those parties which are not our allies. BJP has consistently expanded base over recent years among people and welcomed more allies to NDA," Modi said when he was asked about the BJP's smaller allies losing faith in the government.