New Delhi: Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday warned BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) members of parliament from making provocative statements, saying it diverts the attention from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development agenda.
“We should be careful with words and should steer clear from controversies,” union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi quoted Naidu, the parliamentary affairs minister, as saying during the parliamentary party meeting.
“They [MPs] were told not to make provocative statements as it goes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s developmental agenda,” Naqvi told reporters after the meeting.
The meeting was attended by BJP president Amit Shah, union ministers and the party’s lawmakers.
Naqvi also took a dig at the Congress for its outcry on intolerance in the country, saying that the opposition is doing this for political gains.
“The government is discussing the issue as its attitude is tolerant and is always open to discuss any issue. The opposition is not able to digest the success of the Modi government,” he said.
He said sarcastically that protesting over the issue of intolerance included many “great intellectuals” who had issued an appeal to the people to vote against Modi during the Lok Sabha poll.
People rejected their appeal but they have not able to get over it, he said
He said the debate on the issue of intolerance was “unmasking” those who were misleading the country and added that the party MPs were told that communal riots were controlled under the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government and there was social harmony everywhere
The BJP parliamentary party also discussed Modi’s meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, which is pending for clearance in parliament.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the meeting that the economic growth of 7.4 per cent in the last quarter was a positive sign for the country and will help the government take development to the poor.