Narendra Modi interview: Previous governments have used defence deals as ATMs, says PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his party’s campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with three rallies Thursday — in Meerut, Rudrapur and Jammu. PM Modi is scheduled to visit and address rallies in three other places today — Koraput in Odisha, Mahabubnagar in Telangana and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. At 8 am today, the prime minister’s first interview of the poll season will be aired on Republic Bharat. This comes three months after Modi’s last interview to news agency Asian News International. Modi told ANI editor Smita Prakash in January that the upcoming elections would be a faceoff between the ‘junta and the gathbandhan’. Following the interview, he was at the receiving end of mixed responses from political leaders, with Opposition front runner Rahul Gandhi alleging it was a ‘staged interview’.

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