EXCLUSIVE: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Assembly elections, Tesla controversy, hijab row and more

Jats will remain with BJP and the Yogi Adityanath government will come back to power in Uttar Pradesh due to the transformation it brought in the law and order situation and tremendous development, Union Roads, and Highways Minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari says.

In a detailed Interview with CNN-NEWS18, the senior leader also said that TMC and AAP were reducing the support of the Congress and dividing the votes in Goa which will be one of the reasons paving the way for the BJP victory. Gadkari took a quip at why Congress was not declaring Harish Rawat as its CM face in Uttarakhand. On the Tesla controversy, the Minister said Tesla was welcome in India but Elon Musk's idea to manufacture in China and sell in India is "not a digestible concept" and revealed that he had met the India head of Tesla a few days ago to convince him to set up manufacturing base here.

On the Hijab controversy in Karnataka, the Union Minister said such small incidents are not good for the society, all religions must be respected, and went on to recite a song from his RSS days to say there should be religious harmony in the society.

I am fully confident that we will get the absolute majority in Uttar Pradesh. This is because if you compare the present situation from the previous time when the Samajwadi Party regime was there, the comparison of the two regimes clearly indicates that the law and order situation in SP time was totally worst. And it is a credit to Yogi Adityanath the way he handled and removed the gundaraaj from UP and that is one of the reasons that law and order situation is good and that is the reason that the common people have faith in Yogi and 100 percent that will mean victory for the BJP in UP.

The other important thing is that under PM Modi and CM Yogi, this double engine government has given excellent developmental projects to UP. As far as road infra is concerned, I have already promised the people of UP that we will make roads of UP within 5 years up to the US standard. I always tell people about the statement of US President John Kennedy that American roads are not good because America is rich, but America is rich because American roads are good. So from the road, prosperity will come and that is going to develop UP, bring more employment potential, per capita income, and GDP. In the agricultural field, the majority of farmers in UP grow sugarcane and due to biofuel and ethanol policy, presently the sugar mills are now economically viable and that is the reason why with the support of the government, the farmers are getting money from sugarcane which was delayed earlier. Over Rs 1 lakh crore has been given to the farmers from the sugar mills which is a very big achievement.

It never happens in politics that 2 plus 2 is 4. The politics for progress and development is the most important politics for the BJP. As far as our ideology is concerned, nationalism is the heart of it. The second important agenda is good governance, and the third is Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s thinking of antodaya - the last man of the society who is socially, economically, educationally backward, we always think that he is God for us and we want to work for him. To give him roti-kapda aur makaan, that is our mission. The progress of the last man of society is the highest priority for the party.

We do want to play politics based on caste, creed, sex, and particular religion. We want to play the politics for progress and development. Social equality and economic equality is the mission for us. We don’t want to discriminate against anybody on any basis. And that is the reason our politics is Sabka saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka prayas and the welfare of gaon, garib, mazdoor, kisan is our agenda.

Unfortunately, other parties' agenda is who is Yadav, who is Muslim, they want to discriminate voters based on caste, creed, religion, and language, but we are not in favour of all this politics. You can make an audit of our performance of as far as Modi and Yogi government and you can easily find the difference from the previous government. For the past 50 years, nothing happened in UP but since 2014, we have transformed UP into a new and progressive state.

100 percent. I am confident of that.

Manohar Parrikar was a gem person and a very capable leader of Goa. We always feel the vacuum because of Manohar Parrikar in the politics of Goa. One thing is also clear that after Manohar Parrikar, how Pramod Sawant has taken the charge, and how he delivered the total development work in Goa, I am fully confident that under the leadership of Pramod Sawant, people will vote for BJP and we will win over the situation and get a good majority.

Q. So this time we won’t need Mr Gadkari to go there and salvage it in the end?

I feel that we don’t need Gadkari there because there are two good friends - one is TMC and the other is AAP…they want to reduce the support of the Congress party, they are dividing the votes and that is one of the strengths for us to get a good victory in Goa.

Particularly that seat (Panaji), the party had promised to one leader who was really an important leader. It was difficult to give him (Utpal) a ticket from there, we gave him an alternative but he was not ready to accept it. It is really unfortunate but this is the fact.

What I have experienced in Uttarakhand is that people have a lot of good impressions of the new CM. He is young, dynamic, and taking initiative. And he is has got the vision that he can change the situation in Uttarakhand. And one of the reasons is that he is reasonably a good person, approachable to all the people, and he listens to people, he is humble which is becoming an important strength for him. And that is exactly the strength of the party. And under his leadership, his acceptability is increasing day by day. Under his leadership, 100 percent we will get good results.

I can't understand that when Harish Rawat is a capable person, why Congress is not going to declare him as the CM candidate? I don’t know what is the politics behind this but ultimately I feel that the BJP has got a good chance in Uttarakhand.

Politics is a game of compulsions, contradictions, limitations, and some people are coming and going. Unfortunately, politics is not ideology-based politics, the politics of convenience is very strong in the country and that is the problem that the people are leaving the parties. If anywhere there is a difference in ideology, then I can understand. Matbhinita (difference of opinion) is not a problem but vichhar-shunyata (Zero ideology) is a problem. And that is one of the big problems of Indian democracy. We need to make our politics on basis of ideology. But today there is no ideology - I never understand why people are leaving the party, I never understand why people are coming to the party. I always explain it as politics of convenience which is not good for democracy.

My suggestion is that we should respect all religions, all languages, all people belonging to different classes and varieties, different creeds and sex.

We should establish equality between them.

And I always tell people that any person is not great because of his caste, creed, or sex. He is great because of his qualities, we have to support good qualities in society, we are all part and parcel of one parivar.

Some people go to masjid, some go to mandir, some to gurudwara, I always remember the song in RSS - Sanskruti sab ki ek chirantana, purakhe jiske hindu hai, virat sagar Samaj apna, hum sab iske bindu hain. We are all part and parcel of one society, we should respect every religion, and we should make religious harmony between the society, between the people, we are Indians we are Bhartiya, we will fight for this nation and will make this national super-economic power - that is BJP’s thinking. These small incidents are not good for society, we have to think in a wider interest on how we are going to run this society and make this country.

Tesla is welcome in India, we don’t have any problem. Now the Indian market is huge. The Indian automobile industry’s turnover is Rs 7.5 lakh crore. And all the reputed brands in the whole world - BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Toyota, Volvo, Honda - all are here. So there is a huge market.

Now his (Elon Musk’s) interest is to manufacture Tesla cars in China and make them sell in India. We request him that you can start your own plant here. We have all ancillaries available here, you can get quality production here and you can get a good sale here. So if you start here, you are welcome, no problem. But manufacturing in China and selling in India is not a digestible concept to all of us.

Just 3-4 days back I had an interaction with his India head of Tesla and I have tried to convince him. Ultimately it is dependent on him to take the decision.

We don’t have one company - we have all the world giants are present in the Indian market. If we suppose, we give one benefit to one company, we have to give that benefit to other companies also. That is the practical problem.

It has increased, everywhere in big cities like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi - electric buses have started and within 2 years, there will be electric buses in all corporations. So there are electric cars, autos, two-wheelers, buses, even in rural areas, a lot of electric bikes are there.

It is a number game. Within two years by getting good manufacturing numbers, the cost of electric 2, 3, and 4-wheelers and even bus will be equal to petrol and diesel vehicle. We can achieve that. Lithium-ion batteries are now being manufactured here, but we are developing zinc-ion, sodium-ion, and aluminum-ion so that this new chemistry is going to be helpful for the industry. Indian start-ups are making a lot of research. We are moving towards green hydrogen. We have already taken a car from Toyota on green hydrogen. Around March 15 in Faridabad, we are taking green hydrogen from Faridabad Indian Oil Lab and we will run this car. My idea is to make it from sewage and toilet water by there we can use solar and wind power at low cost.

Green hydrogen is the fuel for the future and my idea is to export green hydrogen to the whole world. We are making import of crude oil, gas, and petroleum, our import is of Rs 8 lakh crore. But we want to replace it with alternative fuels like ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, CNG, electric, bio-LNG, and green hydrogen. I am confident as transport minister within 3 years, we are going to establish all kind of technology manufacturing in India and India will be the number 1 manufacturing hub of automobiles in the world within 5 years — to make the turnover of this sector to Rs 15 lakh crore from 7.5 lakh crore. This is the sector that is giving maximum employment potential, which is giving maximum revenue to the state and the centre in GST and this is a very important sector that will contribute to our growth.

I always remember the philosophy of how to get things done. I always tell the people that I like those who can get things done, we are transparent, time-bound, result-oriented and quality-oriented, and corruption-free. Until now, I have been awarded work of more than Rs 50 lakh crores. In Sagarmala, a project of Rs 16 lakh crore, Bharatmala was a project of 25 lakh crore out of which 20 lakh crore already awarded and now our budget is almost twice and we are raising money from the market. Money is not a problem for us. Delhi-Mumbai expressway is on track and by end of this year, 90% of the work will be complete.

Ten days ago, I was in Uttarakhand and the CM was saying in a public meeting that we have 10 flights from Delhi to Dehradun daily. I said don't bother, within a year, there won't be a single flight coming as we are making Delhi-Dehradun highway within 2 years. Presently it takes 8 hours on that journey, after two years it will take 3 hours. The Delhi-Meerut journey was 4 hours, now it is 40 minutes. Delhi-Jaipur will be 2 hours. Delhi to Katra 6 hours, Delhi to Amritsar 4 hours, Delhi to Srinagar 8 hours, Delhi to Mumbai 12 hours, Delhi to Chandigarh 2.5 hours. If your car running for 8 hours, what will be the fuel cost? And if it is coming in 2 hours, what is the saving in fuel? What about saving time?

The same argument against toll was in Mumbai-Pune e-way too. If you want good services, you have to pay for it. And there is a saving. Delhi to Mumbai a truck takes 50-55 hours, now it will take 18-20 hours. If the driver makes 4 trips in a month, he will make 10 trips on a new road, his fuel cost will be saved, his turnover will increase.

We also want to involve common people who can invest more than Rs 1 lakh in NHAI, we will try to give them 7-8 percent interest. In a bank they get 4%, we will give them more interest every month in their bank account.