‘Running country (for Modi) not same as running state’

“Between running a country and running a state,there is one fundamental difference. While running a country,you have many senior leaders with you in government. You can also probably have a government which could be a coalition government. In all probability,it will be a coalition government. And therefore,you are sharing power with coalition parties to coordinate factors,” Jaitley said during an Idea Exchange interaction at The Indian Express.

“In states,it is one-party government,so obviously the very nature of it is different in governance,” the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha said in response to a query about Muslims being apprehensive about him becoming the PM if the NDA comes to power.

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This message of assurance,Jaitley said,is already being communicated in different ways and exhorted Muslims to judge Modi on the basis of his “larger overall performance” in Gujarat since 2002.

“In what language you say this and what style you say will be different. But this is already being done,” Jaitley said when asked if Modi needed to speak to Muslims and address their fears about him. “He has substantially grown out of 2002,I only hope that his critics also get out of that.”

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“I would urge the members of minorities to judge him in terms of his larger overall performance,” Jaitley said. “Gujarat had a very unfortunate history for almost 40 years post-independence or even more of fragmenting society,communal trouble and so on. He joined…and within months he was confronted with a situation of this kind. But subsequently,it has probably seen 11 years of complete peace and this is the longest such phase as far as Gujarat is concerned. From the kind of growth potential the state has shown,everybody,including minorities,have benefitted”.

In this context,Jaitley said that it is not unusual for leaders to recalibrate their posturing due to the responsibilities vested in them.

“In 1977 when Vajpayee became the foreign minister,he was asked this question: ‘pehle aap yeh kahte the,ab aap wah kah rahe hain’ (You used to say this in the past,and now you are saying that). His reply: ‘Now,I am in government’,” Jaitley said when asked about Modi’s seemingly mellowed position against Pakistan which in a speech over the weekend.