Won’t even spare BJP MPs with criminal records, pledges Modi

Narendra Modi on Monday vowed to cleanse the political system and Parliament from criminal elements if he comes to power and said his first job will be to set up a panel to probe pending criminal cases against the new MPs.

The BJP prime ministerial candidate said he will ensure that all offenders are sent to jail after asking the Supreme Court to hear the cases against them expeditiously.

Modi’s promise to crack down on MPs with criminal antecedents across party lines in a bid to decriminalise politics and Parliament came at a poll rally here.

‘I have decided that when a new government is formed after 16 May, I will set up a committee to find out what cases are pending against whom. (Lok Sabha) candidates submit in their form during filing nominations the details of cases against them. I will not discriminate in it. I will not spare even the BJP and NDA candidates.

‘I will ask the Supreme Court to hear the cases fast. Those, who have committed crime will go to jail and their seats will go to candidates with clean image. No accused will dare to fight polls. Who says that this cleansing cannot happen? I have come to cleanse politics. It is necessary to free Indian democracy from criminalisation,’ he said.

Modi also stepped up his attack on SP, BSP and Congress, saying the ‘power game by the clan of three parties’ is responsible for the poor plight of UP and the nation even as he ridiculed Rahul Gandhi for visiting homes of the poor like tourists who visit Taj Mahal.

Playing up his tea-vendor image, the Gujarat Chief Minister also sought to contrast it with those ‘born with a silver spoon in their mouth’ and made an oblique reference to his OBC origin as he reached out to voters in the Hindi heartland.

‘While the country has been destroyed by the governments of mother and son, Uttar Pradesh has been destroyed by a father-son government. On one hand there is a father-son duo while on the other hand is Behenji (Mayawati)...they waste their whole tenure of five years in teaching a lesson to each other.

‘And mother and son (Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi) simply add fuel to the fire, inflame it. This clan of SP, BSP and Congress is thriving here in this manner. Enough of this game of power has continued. Now give me a chance to serve you,’ Modi said.

Meanwhile, while addressing an election rally in Mumbai, Modi accused the Congress of ganging up with allies to stop him from becoming the prime minister and hiding in ‘bunker’ of secularism to avoid accountability of ten-year UPA rule as he wrapped his campaign on Monday in Maharashtra, which goes to the polls in third and last phase on 24 April.

Addressing two rallies – at Kalyan in adjoining Thane district and at MMRDA Ground in suburban Mumbai – in support of Shiv Sena-BJP-led ‘Mahayuti’ (grand alliance) candidates, the BJP’s PM nominee once again targeted Congress and its top leadership, which has been a recurring theme of his speeches.