Amit Shah mocks 'Mahagathbandhan', says country will have new PM everyday, if they win

If the 'gathbandhan' wins the 2019 general elections, Mayawati will be the Prime Minister on Monday, Akhilesh Yadav will be the premier on Tuesday and so on and so forth, BJP national President Amit Shah said here on Saturday, mocking the efforts to cobble together a coalition against the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Shah said, "This gathbandhan, which is standing against Modi, can the citizens please ask them who is your leader? Shall I answer?...If they win, then on Monday Mayawati will be the PM, Tuesday it will be Akhilesh, Wednesday it will be Deve Gowda, on Thursday it will be Chandrababu Naidu, on Friday it will be Stalin, on Saturday it will be Sharad Pawar and on Sunday the country will go on a holiday. This kind of leadership cannot take India ahead in the world."

Shah was addressing a meeting of the BJP booth workers at a sports facility on the outskirts of the state capital. Shah also said the coalition, which opposes Prime Minister Modi and the BJP, was bereft of leadership, principles and policy.

The BJP President also said only under Modi's leadership, India would get world standing that the country deserves. He said under the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime under Sonia Gandhi and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, modernisation and strengthening of the armed forces took a backseat.

The national leader praised the partnership of Modi and former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar vis-à-vis securing the country's interests as far as security and the armed forces were concerned. "The partnership of Parrikar and Modi accomplished the task of securing this country. The Sonia-Manmohan government was reckless and did not care about the country.

They were negligent about the nation's security. Every day several terrorists would enter the country and bomb attacks were common. The army didn't have any modernisation, nor did we hear of computerisation of the forces. Even their communication and other departments were in a mess," Shah said.

"Parrikar became the Defence Minister and took on the big project of modernising the army. Our (Finance Minister) Piyush Goyal presented the Budget this year and the defence budget stands at Rs 3 lakh crore, the biggest we have spent on defence since Independence," Shah said. Shah said thanks to the Modi-Parrikar duo, India now ranks with the US and Israel as countries who had the capacity to exact revenge on enemy territory for the death of its soldiers.

"Every day, 'Alia, Maliya, Jamaliya' would enter the country at will. There was no one to ask accountability from. After Modi became the PM, there was a Pakistan-sponsored terror attack at Uri. Twelve of our men were burnt alive. There was a mood of defeat across India and Parrikar was the Defence Minister then and Modi the PM. Within 10 days we entered the Pakistani soil and the surgical strike was carried out," Shah said. "We took revenge for our 12 martyrs.

That one step changed the perspective of how other countries see us. Till date there were only two countries, which who could take revenge on behalf of its soldiers on enemy soil: America and Israel. In this list, India has been now added and that is because of the efforts of the BJP," Shah said.

(With inputs from agencies.)