Minister of Environment, Information & Broadcasting and BJP's election in-charge for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, Prakash Javadekar said that Delhi election will be fought on the good vs bad governance. In an exclusive interview with Anup Verma of Millennium Post, the Union Minister stated that Narendra Modi's leadership and his government's policies for overall development of the Capital since the last five-and-half years have ensured that the people will rightly ensure his party's major mandate. He also said that BJP is confident of gaining a major chunk of votes in the upcoming polls. Excerpts:
What is BJP's campaign strategy going to be like in the upcoming assembly polls?
First of all, we are reaching to people with positive note. Till Friday, we have conducted nearly 200-300 meetings and rallies everyday. From Monday onwards, campaign will be in full swing as there will be nearly 1,000 meetings every day which means in next 10 days, 10,000 meetings will be organised.
Many senior leaders have been roped in for campaign through small meeting, rallies and even Nukkads as party's National President, Home Minister, other ministers and leaders have been holding meetings. Has party decided to approach people in different way?
Besides the strategy of "door-to-door" visit for maximum outreach, party is focusing to connect people in another way. This time around, instead of oreganising public rallies, our focus is on public meetings and Nukkads. Through public meetings on small levels, we have not been connecting them directly but are going trough their concerns one to one. We have been analyzing our campaign on daily basis with senior leaders and representatives from the area which is helping us to make our campaign more effective. Everytime strategy should be new and surprising we are all going and doing regular meetings in a day. We will continue to do so.
What kind of works BJP has done through Centre in Delhi?
Through regularisation of unauthorised colonies, Centre has saved lakhs of rupees of Delhiites. Because registration process is being done through circle rate and if it is Rs 20,000 they will be giving only Rs 100 they will be saving lakh of millions of rupees, lakhs of rupees each one, if per person living in shanties get two room flat which today cost Rs 15 lakh he will get 1.5 lakh that is tremendous benefit. Central government scheme of free treatment helped 80 lakh people but Delhi government is not allowing the scheme to be implemented. Similarly, Centre's scheme to help farmers has yet not been implemented by the Delhi government. We have been making houses under PMAY but the state government has stopped this scheme also.
Will BJP continue freebies if it came to power as Delhi people wanted BJP's stand over it?
We will come out with our manifesto cum vision document which will prove our commitment in more effective way.
BJP has given ticket to seven women which is just 10%. And what is the selection criterion of candidates?
We always believe in more and more women participation but in today's scenario it is not possible for any party to give tickets in large. We think that 25-30 per cent tickets should be given to women and even BJP has strong women wing with highest number of women MPs this time. Time will come when their participation will be increased.
Why BJP has not picked CM face in Delhi. Will it be Modi vs Kejriwal this time?
See, there is no any issue of CM face as we have fought election in past without any face. We won in Maharastra, Jharkahnd and Haryana without any face and later Devendra Fadvanis, Raghuvar Das and ML Khattar became Chief Ministers of these three state. When we projeded Das again in Jharkhand, we lost. Similarly, Congress had not announced any CM face and Capt Amrinder Singh was elected later. As far as Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal is concerned, there is no comparison in both as one is known for good governance while other is for bad governance.
Delhi is reeling under severe pollution. Being an Environment Minister, how you will help to reduce pollution?
Pollution worsened in the city as it was neglected for 20 years. Our government in Centre has done a lot of work to reduce pollution in and around the city. Construction of Eastern and Western Peripheral expressways has reduced traffic burden as nearly 60,000 heavy vehicles are not coming to Delhi everyday. We have also provided machines to Haryana and Punjab farmers and both the states have witnessed sharp reduce in stubble burning. We have also phased out polluting vehicles and are shifting to BS-VI vehicles.
What is BJP's stand on full statehood?
On this issue, there has always been great debate and our party has also taken stand so we want overall progress of the city. Let me not forget that this is the National Capital Region (NCR) and in every country NCR has always been protected differently.
How do you see protest against CAA especially in the Capital city where it still continues?
With landslide victory of Modi ji in 2019 and support of Muslim community after Triple Talaq law, abolition of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and Ram Mandir Verdict. Parties like Congress, on these three occasions, were upset and support but suddenly they got chance to confuse people. Our seven ministers wrote articles which were published in all news papers. Senior party leaders, bureaucrats, thinkers, retired judges through rallies and meeting have dispelled the confusion. More than one crore people gave their support through missed calls and there are many rallies and programmes which outnumbered everything. But suddenly protest witnessed at Shaheen Bagh and the location is in the Capital, CAA protest highlighted.
Do you believe that the campaign will polarise due to ongoing protest over CAA?
We don't believe to make campaign "Hindu-Muslim". CAA gives citizenship to destitute who have faced religions persecution and have come from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afganistan before 2014. Indian has its own National Citizenship Law1955 which allows anyone to become Indian Citizen by following the process and by fulfilling the condition and every country has citizenship law hence we also have the process. Through this, people like Adnan Sami and 700 others have been given citizenship in last five years so that original law stands and not cancelled.