BJP doesn’t have to beg for alliance partners: Pon Radhakrishnan

He made these remarks on the sidelines of the 28th anniversary celebrations of the Coimbatore Ex-servicemen and Widows Welfare Society here, where reporters asked him  about the upcoming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. Earlier, at a press conference ahead of the visit by the prime minister here on February 2, Radhakrishnan had said Modi will continue to rule for the coming 15 years. On Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi holding a fast in Hyderabad over the Dalit scholar suicide issue, the minister said he was “moving without any direction”. The opposition party is desperate as it is unable to find any grounds to attack the Modi government and is hence trying to tarnish its image by raising non-issues, the minister claimed. 

The Union Minister also said the Centre will talk to state governments for providing job opportunities to servicemen who retire at an early age, after he was told that jawans who retire early, at the age of 30-35 years, often find it difficult to secure a job. Stating that the Narendra Modi government has already announced the ‘One Rank, One Pension’ scheme for the benefit of ex-servicemen, Radhakrishnan said the Prime Minister would come out with more welfare schemes for them.