It’s become fashionable to oppose whatever Modi govt does: E Sreedharan

 

The 88-year-old technocrat who is ready to accept the BJP Membership expressed willingness to do things for the benefit of his native state Kerala by joining the political party.

Sreedharan is better known as the ‘Metroman’ as he has been instrumental in developing the Delhi Metro Rail project

Sreedharan pooh-poohed the idea of intolerance. “Where is intolerance? It is just talk. We have got very strong judiciary and intolerance cannot function…. If their views are not accepted by the government, they say it is intolerance. There is absolutely no intolerance”, he claimed.

‘Metro Man’ Sreedharan said that his main objective is to help the BJP come to power in Kerala. The assembly elections are due in April-May this year. Sreedharan said that he has a long association with Prime Minister Modi when the later was chief minister of Gujarat and had worked with him on various projects in the state.

“I know him (Modi) from very close quarters. He is very upright, corruption-free, committed, very passionate about the country’s interests, very hardworking and very forward-looking,” Sreedharan said.

In an interview to PTI, he said the debate on nationalism that is happening is unfortunate and that there are “so many petty parties” that are all against the BJP and a combined attack is going on against it for no reason.

“That is why all these things are happening. The government is so forward-looking and dynamic…if they join (support) the (central) government, things will be so different for India and the world. Unfortunately, some of our friends in opposite parties are working against the interests of the country,” he said.

Commenting on the farmers’ agitation against the new farm laws, Sreedharan said that it was possible that the farmers might not have really understood the benefits of these laws.

He denied that the present agitation has anything to do with industry adding that it has nothing to do with the industry unless we are dragging industry into it.

“It is that either farmers have not understood or they don’t want to understand for political reasons. It has become a fashion in this country that whatever the (central) government does, oppose it…. Anything that the government wants to do, there is an opposition unfortunately,” said Sreedharan, who is better known as the ‘Metroman’ and has been instrumental in developing the Delhi Metro Rail project apart from various other infrastructure projects.

Ruling out the possibility of him acting as a mediator between the central government and the protesting farmers, Sreedharan said the issues have to be sorted out by the government.

“They have to educate the farmers and tell them that it is in their own interest. If this is not done, what is going to happen to them? They (protesting farmers) don’t realise what will happen five years down the line,” he noted.

To a query on whether he is optimistic about a constructive solution to the ongoing protests which have been going on for a few months now, he said the protests are not being dragged on by farmers really but “dragged on by elements opposed to the central government”.