"Government Has No Business To Do Business": PM Modi's Top 10 Quotes

The government has no business to do business as its job is to ensure food, shelter, toilets and such basic necessities to the poor, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an exclusive interview with news agency ANI on Wednesday. He also expressed confidence the BJP will win the upcoming assembly elections.

Here are the top 10 quotes of PM Modi from the interview:

1. "I have seen in all states there is inclination towards the BJP. We will win the elections with a full majority. Wherever BJP got the opportunity to work with stability, there the environment is of 'pro-incumbency' instead of 'anti-incumbency'. The BJP always emerges victoriously with 'pro-incumbency' in elections," said PM Modi.
2. "We believe in unity in diversity but some leaders followed 'divide and rule' policy...We identified over 100 aspirational districts in the country. Today, some of these districts have crossed the national average on many parameters. This is a way to address regional aspirations."
3. "The state government gave its consent for whatever committee Supreme Court wanted to form, for whichever judge Supreme Court wanted for probe. The state government is working transparently," PM Modi on Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
4. "I have maintained silence on the (Punjab security lapse) issue. The Supreme Court is looking into the matter seriously. Any statement that I make in this regard will impact the investigation, and it is not right."
5. "The government has no business to do business. Its job is to think about food for the poor, make houses and toilets for them, get them clean drinking water, make health facilities available to them, make roads, to think about the small farmers. This is my priority. If somebody calls this socialism, I accept it."
6. "When people discuss security in Uttar Pradesh, they think of their troubles during the previous governments, mafia raj, gunda raj, the manner in which musclemen had a status and shelter in government. UP saw this from close quarters, women couldn't step out"
7. "I am for the society. When I say fake socialism, it is 'parivarvad'. Do you see Lohia's family anywhere, he was a socialist; do you see the family of George Fernandes, he was also a Samajwadi. Nitish Babu, he is working with us, he is also a socialist. Do you see his family?"
8. "Two persons from a family getting elected and becoming MLAs does not make the party belonging to a family. When a party is run for generations by a family, there's only dynasty, not dynamics. Starting from Jammu and Kashmir, where there're two parties run by two separate families, you can see similar trend in Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Dynastic politics is the biggest enemy of democracy."
9. "On some subjects, our external affairs ministry and defence ministry have given detailed answers and wherever it was necessary, I had also spoken. How do I reply to a person who does not listen, and does not sit in the House?" he asked, referring to Congress' Rahul Gandhi.
10. "We believe that for a country's progress we have to address regional aspirations. I was a Chief Minister too and I understand states' aspirations. Earlier, leaders coming to India used to visit only Delhi, but I took them to different states."