Nitin Gadkari was offered support for PM’s post, but he refused, ‘I am loyal to my conviction, won’t compromise…’

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday that an opposition leader once offered to back him if he wanted to run for the Prime Minister’s position. However, he refused it, explaining that he had no desire to pursue that ambition.

“I remember one incident — I would not name anyone — that person said `if you are going to become prime minister, we will support you,’ Gadkari said, ‘But, I asked why you should support me, and why should I take your support.”

“To become the prime minister is not the aim in my life. I am loyal to my conviction and my organization, and I am not going to compromise for any post because my conviction is foremost for me,” he goes on to add.

In his speech, Gadkari underlined the importance of ethics in both journalism and politics. Recalling a meeting with a senior CPI functionary, Gadkari said he told the communist leader that late AB Bardhan was among the tallest politicians from Nagpur and Vidarbha.

When the leader expressed surprise saying that Bardhan was an opponent of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Gadkari said honest opposition should be respected.

“I said one should respect a person who opposes with honesty, because there is honesty in his opposition….one who opposes with dishonesty deserves no respect,” Gadkari said.

Comrade Bardhan was faithful to his ideology, and politics as well as journalism now lack such people, he said. Democracy will be successful only when all four pillars — judiciary, executive, legislature and media — follow ethics, the BJP leader further said.

Gadkari on Saturday conferred the Anilkumar Award for Excellence in Journalism 2023-24 on four senior journalists at a function in Nagpur. The journalists are Vivek Deshpande (formerly with Indian Express), Ramu Bhagwat (who retired from Times of India), Shrimant Mane (Editor, Lokmat Vidarbha) and Ram Bhakre (Loksatta). The award, instituted in the memory of pre-Independence era journalist, poet and writer Anilkumar, is jointly given by the Vidarbha Gaurav Pratishthan and Nagpur Union of Working Journalists (NUWJ)

(With inputs from agencies)