‘You are my boss, I am a worker’: PM Narendra Modi as Nitin Nabin takes charge as BJP chief; asks partymen to shun congress ‘failings’

NEW DELHI: Nitin Nabin on Tuesday took over as the 12th and youngest president of BJP and received a ringing endorsement from PM Narendra Modi who called him his "boss", lauded him for proving himself in every responsibility and asked party workers to shun the failings of Congress at a time when BJP has become the preferred party of governance from the national to local level.

"When it comes to the party's matters, then honourable Nitin Nabin ji is my boss and I am a worker," Modi said.


It may seem to people that Narendra Modi is the third-term PM of the country, he became CM at only 50 years of age and has been head of a govt for 25 continuous years. But above all this in my life is the fact that I am a BJP worker. This is my biggest pride, PM Modi said.




He chose the occasion to emphasise the role of BJP's organisational strength and discipline behind its rise, contrasting this with decline of Congress from the all-time high of over 400 parliamentary seats and nearly 50% votes in 1984 - the largest mandate for any political party - to its current struggle to win even 100 seats.

"Congress can never introspect over its decline because it will raise questions over the family which has captured it. They keep looking for excuses. They have lost courage to look for even correct reasons behind their fall," he said. LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly blamed an alleged collusion of EC and BJP for "vote chori" behind Congress's string of dismal poll shows.

"This family rule is an enemy of democracy," Modi said and recalled after BJP's big win in 2002 Gujarat polls, when he was CM, he was at a meeting to review reasons for its loss in some seats. BJP started as a party with a difference and has become the preferred party of governance, he said, in a nod to its "unprecedented" strike rate in recent assembly and civic polls.

Raising the issue of infiltration and demographic imbalance, which he had flagged at a recent rally in assembly poll-bound West Bengal, Modi said even rich and strong countries are deporting infiltrators. "The world does not question them for expelling infiltrators," he said, adding that these nations would claim to be flag-bearers of democracy and act like "nawabs (lords)" of the world. No country accepts infiltrators, he said, without naming any nation. While US has launched an expansive crackdown on infiltrators, several wealthy countries are also tightening measures against them.

Asserting that India, too, cannot allow illegals on its soil, he called them a big threat to national security. "We will have to expose parties that are shielding them for vote-bank politics," he said.

In the same breath, he also slammed "urban naxals", saying they are acquiring international dimensions and conspiring to harm India. They must be defeated by the party's organisational and ideological strength, he said. Maoism is in its last breath in the country, he said.

Modi touched on a host of his govt's welfare measures and said he is giving an account of his work to the new chief who will write his confidential report, drawing good cheers from the audience.