BJP leader and Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Monday said that if the Narendra Modi government at the Centre were playing petty politics, as had been alleged, it would have allotted the first PM Mitra Park to one of the States ruled by the NDA or the BJP, rather than Tamil Nadu.

To a query whether the BJP’s ‘double-engine sarkar’ slogan constituted a threat to voters — that unless they vote for the ruling party at the Centre, some Central schemes might not reach them — Mr. Goyal said the BJP government had sanctioned the first PM Mitra Park in Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu when he was the Textiles Minister.

During a conversation with journalists of The Hindu, he said that when the BJP government came out with a challenge — an application wherein marks would be awarded for each parameter, including stakeholders, land availability, etc. — Tamil Nadu submitted a proper application and offered the minimum 1,000 acres of land required.

Tamil Nadu’s potential

“As I have been repeatedly saying, there is huge potential in Tamil Nadu, so it scored well. And guess what? The first park we sanctioned was in Tamil Nadu. So, if we were playing petty politics, why would I have allotted that first park to Tamil Nadu? What would stop me from giving it to one of the BJP- or NDA-ruled States?” he said.

Mr. Goyal said the BJP was talking of a double engine “because the gentleman in question, Mr. Stalin, is all the time fighting with us and, God forbid, if the DMK comes into government.”

Alleging that Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin would be the Chief Ministerial choice if the DMK were to come to power, he challenged Mr. Stalin to declare that Mr. Udhayanidhi would never become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

“I have asked so many times, but I have not got any confirmation from Mr. Stalin. What is this business of having a right just because you are born in a particular family? And just in case any of you do not know, I also come from a political family,” he said.

When asked whether the BJP’s alliance in Tamil Nadu was a conscious strategy, since a national party is risk-averse in a Lok Sabha election and tries to stitch together a strong alliance for it, while reserving the experimentation and the go-it-alone strategy for an Assembly election, Mr. Goyal said it was indeed a conscious decision, “because the BJP has been observing the happenings in Tamil Nadu, which are extremely disturbing for all of us.”

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He said Tamil Nadu was the pride of India; the pride of Indian culture; and the pride of Indian heritage and traditions. “The Tamil language would probably be one of the oldest in the world, written and spoken for at least 5,000 years, if not more. When we see a person like Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin use such unsavoury terms against Sanatana Dharma, which, by itself, is a way of life, it is not an attack on a religion; it is an attack on Tamil culture and traditions,” he said.

Alleging a scandal in the sale of liquor by the State-run Tasmac outlets, he said there was not a single bottle of liquor sold without an unofficial surcharge.

“We cannot afford to see a very important State like Tamil Nadu go down rapidly, the way it has under the DMK government. I must also mention that Tamil Nadu’s true potential is massive. You go all over the world. I do not know how many Fortune 500 companies are headed by illustrious sons of the soil from Tamil Nadu. Are we getting the best of that potential in Tamil Nadu? I suspect not. I do not believe we have really reached that true potential,” he added.

Stating that a fine balance had been struck among all alliance partners of the BJP, and that discussions among them were taking place without discord, he said: “There is no rancour, and that, I think, is the strength of this alliance. In the opposite alliance of the DMK, the Congress and the DMK kept fighting right till the end, and I suspect it is still not over, from what I see in The Hindu.”