Akbar said he had come back to politics with the BJP for its policies and work to bring the nation back into a ‘œrecovery mission’œ.
Seems like the Modi-wave is fast becoming a storm. More and more people are joining BJP and extending their support to the party for the upcoming general elections. Today, author and senior journalist M J Akbar joined the party in the presence of party president Rajnath Singh.
Addressing the press conference after his induction in the party, Akbar said he had come back to politics with the BJP for its policies and work to bring the nation back into a “recovery mission“.
“I have come back to politics because of policy (main rajniti me niti ke liye wapas aya hun). The crisis in front of the country is known to all. This is an opportunity to do whatever little we can do for our country,” he said.
Akbar was a part of Congress party when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister of the country. He was an MP from Kishanganj in Bihar in 1989. He lost the seat in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections. Incidentally, Akbar returns to politics just a day after Uttarakhand leader and Congress MP Satpal Maharaj joined BJP and showed his solidarity with BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s mission and vision.
His words were strikingly similar to that of Maharaj who too had spoken about a “mission to move country forward” yesterday.
Speaking on his past proximity with Rajiv Gandhi, Akbar acknowledged that the former was a friend and 20 years have passed since that. Backing the Gujarat chief minister, Akbar said that no other leader has gone through so much scrutiny as Modi.
“It is not only that there is crisis. But now I also see a solution to the crisis. Narendra Modi’s leadership is essential for the country,” he said, “In ten years, no other politicians has gone through so much scrutiny as Mr Modi has. He was scrutinised by police, central government, CBI, court-appointed institution.”
“And those who rake up this issue all the time, I want to tell them to read the Justice Krishna report. How many people are there in Gujarat who are in jail through the legal system. More than 100. Can one tell me the numbers as far as the 1984 and 1993 riots are concerned,” he added.
He also hoped that Muslims will join hands with BJP as they are equal citizens of the nation and will come out of the “politics of fear”.
Akbar’s intentions to join BJP were speculations which were growing stronger among people day by day. Interestingly, Akbar’s column “The Siege Within” in Times of India, dated March 16, 2014, was aptly titled “No perfect fit, but one choice”. There he had written about how Modi was the only choice which can provide India good governance.
“Governance now comes with an adjective: stable. Non-BJP fronts have collapsed before construction. And when stand-alone Arvind Kejriwal threatens to send journalists to jail, and denies his remarks despite video evidence, then he has lost composure because he is losing support. Narendra Modi has sorted out the queues of voters for this general election; but he still has to sort out the queue for tickets,” Akbar had written in his column.
Akbar has been appointed as the spokesperson of the party. He joins other journalists like Swapan Dasgupta and Balbir Punj in BJP.
