I always look forward to healthy criticism and miss genuine critics: Modi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 2

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that he always looks forward to healthy criticism and misses genuine critics.

In an interview to a magazine, the PM while responding to queries that the opposition has not been able to figure him out said, “The problem here is not Modi…but when any person tries to see anything with a preconceived mindset, then either he is able to see only half of the view or is inspired to see wrong things. And if he is not able to see anything as per his preconceived notion, then he creates a perception to feed his preconceived mindset."

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He said if someone had only analysed his work there would not be any confusion.

"After I became chief minister, the first thing I did, about 20 years ago, when I didn’t have any prior experience of administration…I first of all went to the people affected by the Kutch earthquake. I publicly stated that this is the first Diwali after the earthquake, so we will not celebrate it and I was there with the families of the earthquake victims on the day of Diwali and shared their suffering," the PM said.

He added that he did not have even a remote connection with politics and plunged into it after the earthquake of Kutch.

"From the younger days, my bent of mind was spiritual. The tenet of ‘Jan Seva Hi Prabhu Seva’ always inspired me. And the first public function I did after becoming CM was the Garib Kalyan Mela. If someone would have understood all this, then the work done by me today, like building toilets in poor people’s homes or providing free ration to the poor, would have been easier for them to understand," he said.

The PM said it is not as though he has no faults.

"For my own healthy development, I attach a big importance to criticism. I, with an honest mind, respect critics a lot. But, unfortunately, the number of critics is very few. Mostly, people only level allegations, the people who play games about perception are more in number. And the reason for this is that, for criticism, one has to do a lot of hard work and research, and in today’s fast-paced world, maybe people don’t have time. So sometimes, I miss critics," the PM added.