Union Minister Nitin Gadkari stated on Friday that while politics should ideally be associated with social service, nation-building, and development, it has now become synonymous with power politics. The senior BJP leader made these remarks during the felicitation of Rajasthan Governor Haribhau Bagade.
“Politics doesn’t suffer from differences of opinion but from a lack of ideas. The essence of politics is ‘samajkaran, rashtrakaran, and vikaskaran’ (social service, nation-building, and development). However, today, politics is defined solely by ‘sattakaran’ (power politics),” he said.
Reflecting on his past, Gadkari mentioned the challenges faced while working as RSS workers, including a lack of recognition and respect. He praised Haribhau Bagade for his dedication to public welfare and recounted his own experiences in Vidarbha, where he worked for 20 years as a party worker. He recalled incidents such as people throwing stones at their rallies and his autorickshaw being set on fire post-Emergency.