00:00First up, sir, thank you for taking the time out. You've been on our wish list forever and thank you
00:07for considering UNPolitics in India today. It's a pleasure, it's an honour.
00:10Mr. Rajiju, you're used to very rich introductions. You know, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, you've held so many offices in the
00:17Cabinet, four times MP.
00:19Okay, let's begin with a political question. With you jumping into that river and swimming. Now, that's raised quite a
00:27few eyebrows, it's become a talking point, there are people who are comparing you to Rahul Gandhi as well.
00:32I don't know when I am doing something which is of my interest, nobody else come into my mind. Leave
00:41alone Rahul Gandhi ji. I mean, I don't think about anybody when I'm swimming in that gushing rivers in Arunachar
00:47Pradesh, which is no child's play to jump and swim there. It is only people like me who grew up
00:54there, we know it. I jumped it and just to inspire my followers, I put it in social media.
01:00It's not like because Rahul Gandhi is doing it and he's done so many of these videos.
01:05I've been swimming since childhood, ever since I was four years old. Rahul Gandhi ji must have taken some training
01:11coaching. I don't need training coaching. It was a simple video where I have shown it that this is the
01:18way we swim in our village.
01:20And the Congress people started trolling me, saying, oh, you're comparing with Rahul Gandhi ji, you can't swim like Rahul
01:26Gandhi and all. Rahul Gandhi didn't exist in my mind.
01:28But they started just comparing. Then I hit back. I said, I'm here. I'm here. I don't need any teaching
01:37or teaching. I don't need any coaching coaching.
01:40And Rahul Gandhi ji needs training, coaching, spending money. I do everything without money. I don't need money. This is
01:48my way of life.
01:49All those. And just to tell you an interesting part. Some people were trolling on my swimming style.
01:56Diving. Diving position is wrong. That's what they said.
01:59Imagine in that kind of flooded water, deep, around seven, eight meters depth.
02:05And then the logs are coming because it's a very monsoon type of, you know, that water.
02:13The river is in spade. Yeah, the river is in spade.
02:15In such water, you can't dive with your heads down and you don't open your eyes down there and you
02:22swim with a straight body.
02:24Not flat like you swim in a swimming pool.
02:27Because if you swim straight, the water will hit you.
02:30So your body has to be straight.
02:32But do you agree, Mr. Rajivu, that the BJP does have a dearth of, you'll call them yuva netas.
02:38Or netas are more relatable to the youth.
02:40That is perception. BJP leaders are extremely...
02:44Tell me one more like you. Mr. Thakur, maanlo.
02:48But tell me one more like you.
02:49It's not good to take names because then you are classifying.
02:53See, in the cabinet, Prime Minister himself and all the cabinet ministers,
02:59we exchange free views, we give our expert opinion and we talk about subject and all.
03:08There's no restriction as such.
03:11And then when the cabinet meeting is over, all the cabinet ministers are very jolly.
03:16We talk, we have fun.
03:18And then when we meet in the party...
03:19Does this really happen, Mr. Rajivu?
03:20You know, the perception outside is that Prime Minister,
03:23and everyone comes out, takes a dictation and comes out.
03:28I must tell you, I have never seen a person in my life who can listen more than Modi ji.
03:39He sits and listens and listens and listens.
03:43Nobody else will have that kind of patience which Modi ji has.
03:47And who has built this kind of image outside?
03:51I think journalists like you, I mean, not you particularly.
03:55Okay, sir, you can say journalists like me.
03:57The media have created Modi ji's image that he listens.
04:01But I haven't seen the people that I have seen today.
04:04Even some of my minister colleagues, they listen less because they have to say it.
04:08Modi ji listens and listens.
04:10He will offer his suggestion at the last.
04:18He speaks for less than 5% and 95% is always for the other colleagues.
04:27He will ask, how many people listen to him?
04:31And how do they make the image in the outside?
04:33Modi ji doesn't even clarify.
04:34He thinks that I will do my work with the people who say to say to say to say.
04:39So that image is created by basically media, I think.
04:43But sir, the image is also bolstered of the lack of, you know, a press conference.
04:48Yeah, so press conference, if you saw all of the people in the last time, when Modi ji was the
04:54chief minister of Gujarat,
05:43he said that's what, you know, I do agree and I accept that he's given a lot of interviews.
05:48You can say that it is a media-generated image that, you know, he doesn't listen, the prime minister doesn't
05:55listen.
05:56We don't think that the prime minister doesn't listen.
05:57I think the prime minister listens.
06:01No, I understand, sir.
06:18I understand what you're saying.
06:19But, you know, I wasn't there on the time of when the prime minister, or I wasn't a journalist at
06:25the time when the prime minister was the chief minister in 2002.
06:28I was still in school then.
06:30But there is a perception that maybe we should have press conferences because, you know, you don't like the term
06:36Gen Z,
06:37but a lot of young kids today look at other countries where there are press conferences.
06:41And whether head of state.
06:43The prime minister does a press conference.
06:46He does interaction with people.
06:48He does talk straight.
06:50The prime minister does the same engagement with scientists.
06:55Now, tell me, who is the prime minister who has interacted with the students every year during the exam time,
07:07during other occasions, like the way the prime minister does?
07:32With athletes.
