[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Senior BJP leader and union minister Nitin Gadkari once again made a statement that has provided fodder to the opposition and forced the BJP and Narendra Modi government into an embarrassed silence.

While Modi government’s term is drawing to a close and there’s talk of its failure to deliver on nearly every poll promise – be it jobs, farmers’ plight, manufacturing, value of rupee, etc – Gadkari on Sunday said that people like leaders who show them dreams, but when those dreams aren’t fulfilled, people also beat up the leaders.

“Sapne dikhane waale neta logon ko acche lagte hain, par dikhaye hue sapne agar pure nahi kiye to janta unki pitayi bhi karti hai (People like political leaders who show them dreams. But if those dreams are not fulfilled, the people thrash these leaders),” said Gadkari.

“Isliye sapne wahi dikhao jo pure ho sakein. Main sapne dikhane waale mein se nahi hu. Main jo bolta hu, woh 100 per cent danke ki chot par pura hota hai (Hence you must only show dreams that can be fulfilled. I am not among those who show dreams. Whatever I say, I fulfill it 100 per cent),” he said.

Gadkari was speaking at an event in Mumbai to launch a new BJP-affiliated transport outfit — the Navbhartiya Shiv Vahatuk Sanghathana (NSVS).

Gadkari, who is the Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, highlighted his ministry’s ambitious project to turn rivers into waterways and plans for making road transport safer and more reliable. He said road projects worth Rs 5 lakh crore had been sanctioned in the state.

Many in the Opposition and some political commentators interpreted his comments as an indirect message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, given the accusations levelled at the BJP about failing fulfil the promises it made in 2014.

The remark provoked some in the Opposition to ask for whom was the warning meant for. Taking a jibe at Gadkari over his statement, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the minister was showing his party “a mirror in a subtle way.”

RJD leader Manoj K Jha also expressed shock at the comment and wrote, “OMG!! Something is brewing!!!”

Gadkari, a former BJP president, also spoke about his stint as Maharashtra’s PWD minister when the Shiv Sena-BJP government was in power (1995-99) in the state. “The mediapersons in Mumbai know what kind of a person I am as they have seen how I complete projects. They do trust me,” said the 61-year-old politician from Nagpur.

“People used to laugh at me when I, as PWD minister, used to claim that I was going to build over 50 flyovers in Mumbai, and bring down the travel time between Mumbai and Pune to merely two hours (via 91-km expressway). I was ridiculed but I proved them wrong and completed every project I had promised,” Gadkari said.

At the function, Bollywood actor Isha Koppikar joined the BJP and was made working president of the party’s women transport wing.

Last year, the Union minister had made comments that were said to have caused the ruling party much embarrassment. At an event he had said that some people in the BJP need to speak less. Politicians in general need to be more economical while speaking to media, he added.

In October 2018, the Union minister created a storm when he hinted that the BJP deliberately made “tall promises” to come to power. He said, “We were very confident that we would never come to power, so we were advised to make tall promises. Now that we are in power, the public reminds us of those promises made by us. However, these days, we just laugh and move on.”

In December, at the annual Intelligence Bureau (IB) Endowment Lecture, Gadkari had said: “If I am the party president and my MPs and MLAs are not doing well, then who is responsible? I am.”

This remark came just days after his comment that “the leadership should own up to defeat and failures”, in an apparent reference to the BJP’s defeat in the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Gadkari later said that his statements had been “twisted”.

“Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan, as when there is success, there will be a race to take credit but in case of failure, everybody will start pointing fingers at each other,” he had said. “Leadership should have the ‘vrutti’ (tendency) to own up the defeat and failures,” he had said.

At the IB function, Gadkari had also said that he liked the speeches of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. “Tolerance is the biggest asset of the Indian system,” he had said. “You can’t win elections only because you speak well… you might be a vidwan (learned) but people may not vote for you. One who thinks he knows everything is mistaken — people should refrain from artificial marketing,” he had said.

Earlier, he had said that “some people in the BJP need to speak less. Politicians, in general, must be more economical while interacting with the media”.

At the valedictory function of the annual Marathi literary meet at Yavatmal on January 13, Gadkari said politicians should not interfere in other fields.

The meet was embroiled in a controversy after an invitation to writer Nayantara Sahgal was withdrawn apparently under pressure from a political party.

Without making a direct reference to the row, Gadkari had said, “Politicians should learn not to interfere in other fields. The people who are in universities, educational institutions, literature and poetry, they should be dealing with their (respective) areas.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]