He also said nabbing fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who is said to be hiding in Pakistan, was just a matter of time. “I am confident that we will succeed in getting him back. It is just a matter of time,” the home minister said. While Singh took a hard-line towards Pakistan, he was more measured when it came to China. He refused to criticize it for repeatedly blocking the designation of another of India’s most wanted – Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar – as a terrorist at the United Nations. “Maybe China did not support us because of their own internal deliberations. But am hopeful they will support us in the future,” he said.
Interestingly, the home minister also refused to criticize the US decision to put a blanket ban on travelers from seven Islamic nations entering America, a decision that has triggered widespread opprobrium for President Donald Trump. Singh gave Trump a wide berth, saying he must have taken such a decision after “assessing local terror situation”.
Talking about his home state Uttar Pradesh that is holding assembly elections in two weeks’ time, Singh expressed faith that BJP will win over 250 of the 403 seats. He said the BSP and the SP-Congress alliance should decide who is the main opposition to BJP, and observed who the real opposition would varies from region to region. Singh, a former CM of the state, ruled himself out of the race to become the UP chief minister. “I am already the home minister, it would be injustice if others are not given a chance,” he said, noting that going ahead with the poll campaign without declaring a CM candidate would not affect his party’s chances.
With regard to the candidature of his son Pankaj Singh, Rajnath said his opinion was that a leader’s son should work at least 10 years in party before fighting elections. He pointed out that when AB Vajpayee had recommended Pankaj’s name to be a candidate in 2007, he had politely declined since Rajnath Singh was the BJP president then.
Catch India’s Union home minister at his candid best,
tonight on CNBC-TV18 at
10 pm and CNBC Awaaz
10.30 pm. The full interview will be aired on all the ETV Hindi and Urdu channels at
9 pm tonight and on CNN-News18 and News18 India at
10 pm. The entire transcript of the interview will be available on
news18.com.
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