
‘Bharat jhukega nahi': Ravi Kishan recalls PM Modi's words as he tried to touch his feet; says he was told to ‘stay away from controversies'
Infamous for not mincing his words when commenting on various topics, he stated that he piped down a bit as per PM Modi's instructions. Maintaining that he used to get involved in a lot of controversies initially, he said during an appearance on Raj Shamani's podcast, 'In fact, the Prime Minister himself asked me not to do that. He said, 'You are a celebrity as well. So, speak only after giving it a lot of thought. The lesser you appear before the media, the better. Avoid getting embroiled in controversies as much as possible.' He said those things in the very best words. From that day onwards, I have never made any loose talk just to create headlines.'
Pointing out that he has something he likes to call the 'Ravi Kishan ras (essence)', the actor said there have been occasions when remarks infused with it have gone viral. He added, however, that such moments usually happen unintentionally, and emphasised that he stopped trying to generate headlines deliberately after receiving that advice from Modi. 'There were a lot of issues going on, including the Marathi-Bhojpuri controversy (that I could have commented on). But the best thing to do is, do your work, stay quiet and don't beat the drum. The entire country is watching you. Also, people know everything, including the smallest details about you, such as your car, bungalow, success et al. Keep your head down and be natural,' he added.
He also mentioned that people like him have to always respect others and listen to them. 'There have been times when people stopped my car, asking about the drainage in their area, and even requesting me to book train tickets for them. You have to sit there and book tickets for them. As an MP, I have to. They complain to me about water not coming from roadside taps. I fought the election, and it's my job to look into that as well. Don't make faces; don't get angry,' Kishan emphasised.
Dubbing Modi as 'Niswarth Sant', he recalled an incident where he was about to touch the PM's feet, but the latter stopped him immediately. 'Even Yogiji (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath) is following Modiji's path. In fact, all of us are. Every BJP leader is following Modiji. As a star campaigner for the party, I can say with confidence that all BJP CMs are following his lead. He is so virat (huge) and so is his work… He works for 18 hours or so every day after getting up at 4.30 in the morning… He never takes leave, even if he is ill. I have never heard that he's sick or that he's on a holiday. He has been working 24×7 for so many years. Yogiji is the same. They function on just 4-5 hours of sleep. They are 'niswarth sant (selfless saints)'. We get such people only once in centuries,' he pointed out.
Kishan continued, 'After I won my first election, I went to meet Modiji in his cabin to seek his blessings. Looking at me, he asked, 'So, how's your Mahadev?' I went fully blank. I usually don't fall on people's feet. But, upon seeing him, my hands went straight for his feet to touch them. He immediately held my hands and said, 'Bharat jhukega nahi (India will not bow down)'. That was the line for me.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)

First Post
2 minutes ago
- First Post
Op Sindoor debate in Parl today, PM Modi says precision strikes a message for terrorists
PM Modi set the tone of the government as the Parliament prepares for a fiery debate on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. The Prime Minister warned that there will be no safe havens for terrorists read more As the Indian parliament gears up to debate the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that the precision strikes of Pakistani terror camps in May were India's message that there are no safe havens for terrorists and their masters. While speaking at an event in Tamil Nadu's Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the prime minister said that India places the highest priority on its national security. He emphasised that Operation Sindoor has created a new awakening and a new self-confidence across the country. PM Modi was attending the event to honour Chola emperor Rajendra Chola when he made his stance on the matter clear. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'The world witnessed India's firm and decisive response to the threat against its sovereignty during Operation Sindoor, and it has sent a clear message: there is no haven for terrorists and enemies of the nation,' the prime minister said in his address. PM Modi sets the tone of the government ahead of the debate Many believe that with this address, the prime minister has set the tone for the government's response to the debate in parliament, which will take place in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Meanwhile, the Opposition is planning to open the front by talking about the big terror attacks under 'PM Modi's watch'. The debate in Lok Sabha is coming after a first week of disruption of Parliament's Monsoon session and is expected to be a fiery one. The two sides have agreed to a marathon 16-hour debate in each House, which invariably stretches longer in practice. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to initiate the debate immediately after the question hour in the Lok Sabha. Sources close to the matter told The Times of India that Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be speaking on the issues amid indications that the PM may intervene to convey his government's 'robust' stand against terrorism. Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition in LS and RS - Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge - would lead the charge against the government along with Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav. It is believed that Congress is planning to attack the government and particularly PM Modi over national security. The Opposition is most likely to point toward the repeated big terror attacks under PM Modi's watch. Since the Pahalgam terror attack, Congress and the opposition have been pointing out that the terrorists singled out the tourists by religion to execute them. Ahead of the debate, Congress also raised the issue of US President Donald Trump's claims of halting Operation Sindoor and calling for a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. On Sunday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh pointed out that since May 10, Trump has claimed '26 times' that he stopped the operation by 'threatening to cut off trade with India, and claimed that five fighter jets may have been shot down'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Even though Congress had been demanding a special two-day session of Parliament immediately after Operation Sindoor was abruptly halted, that demand was ignored. Nevertheless, better late than never,' he wrote in a post on X.

The Wire
2 minutes ago
- The Wire
Operation Sindoor: Narendra Modi's Image Versus National Interest
Prime minister Narendra Modi should know that seeking the cooperation of opposition parties to project India's case abroad after Operation Sindoor must necessarily be accompanied by showing some respect for the opposition in domestic politics. You cannot seek opposition cooperation to present a unified foreign policy position abroad and continue to treat opposition parties as "enemies" in domestic politics. After all, it was the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat who had advised the Bharatiya Janata Party not to treat the opposition as enemies and also constructive engagement after the BJP's disappointing performance at the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. In this regard has Modi learnt any lessons from the 2024 Lok Sabha results? The basic attitude and approach doesn't seem to have changed. Modi still believes that he can cynically manipulate the opposition through coercive politics without showing any sincerity of purpose. It is common knowledge now that Operation Sindoor, though a limited success, was badly bungled at several levels and mistakes were made which could have been avoided. This is something the government is yet to admit buy responsible Indian military officers have dropped adequate hints in public fora. When an honest military officer cited " restraint from political leadership" as a reason for some Indian fighter planes going down, he was serving the interest of truth. The Modi government's initial silence on the other hand was meant to protect the prime minister's image. Modi was clearly on the backfoot after operation Sindoor and was unable to fully convince his own constituency (including the RSS) that it was an unqualified success. He therefore swallowed his ego for the first time and approached the opposition parties to take part in a joint delegation to present India's case abroad as no country had explicitly condemned Pakistan's role in the Pahalgam terror attack. The Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi has been been raising tough questions around Operation Sindoor and sought a special session of parliament to discuss everything threadbare. Other opposition parties wanted the same. But then the cynical, coercive and manipulative template of politics is embedded in the regime's DNA. The opening of the parliament session was marked by the unprecedented resignation of vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar. This was the distraction the BJP needed to create chaos and disrupt what might have been a relatively more orderly parliament session with the citizens eager to learn more about the critical issues of national interest such as Operation Sindoor and the stupendous claims by US president Donald Trump on India-Pakistan ceasefire linked to trade talks. The reality is that the president of the world's biggest military power has repeated 25 times that he stopped the India-Pakistan military exchange which was about to spillover to the nuclear domain with the threat of trade. Whether Modi likes it or not, this issue will have to be discussed in parliament. The people of this country cannot be kept in the dark simply because Modi's personal image is to be kept intact. This, in fact, is the nub of the issue. Operation Sindoor and the multiple issues it has thrown up demands an open discussion in parliament to further national interests. But the regime's ecosystem is bent upon creating distractions and confusion to protect Modi's image. So national interest and the ruling ecosystem's attempt to save Modi's image are totally at odds with each other today. This was apparent even during Operation Sindoor. The BJP's media ecosystem projected Modi as a warrior who will not spare Pakistan but the moment the ceasefire happened, Modi's picture was withdrawn and replaced with that of government spokesperson Vikram Misri who announced the ceasefire. This was undisguised manipulation. Similarly, people noticed how Modi used the opposition's cooperation to burnish his own image with his domestic constituency. Even before the opposition delegation had returned, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar was boasting at a public forum that Modi had achieved with the opposition parties what even Indira Gandhi couldn't have done in the 1970s. Thus everything is a personal image building exercise for Modi first, and then something else. One only hopes that Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tiwari have internalised this aspect of Modi's narcissism when they lend unqualified support to Operation Sindoor in "national interest." Don't they see how "national interest" seamlessly converts to Modi's interest in domestic politics? Don't they see how the hyphenation of India with Pakistan, which they speak against in global fora, is paradoxically a key component of Modi's image building politics in the cow belt? They might see more of it in the current parliament session as the ruling party cynically manages everything as it has done in the past. Indeed how Modi treats the opposition parties in domestic politics, as aptly articulated by Mohan Bhagwat himself, is fundamentally the bane of Indian politics and the primary cause of democratic backsliding today. If this is not fixed nothing is fixed.


Hans India
2 minutes ago
- Hans India
Bandi sanjay slams Cong govt over BC Declaration
Hyderabad: UnionMinister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar stirred a major controversy on Sunday after launching a direct attack on the Telangana Congress government, accusing it of introducing a 'Muslim Declaration Bill' under the guise of a Backward Classes (BC) Declaration. Speaking to the media after inaugurating the Central government-funded 'Critical Care Block' at Karimnagar District Main Hospital, Bandi Sanjay claimed the state government's reservation proposals unfairly favor Muslims at the expense of BCs and Hindus. 'Under the so-called BC Declaration, 27 percent reservations are being implemented for BCs, and an additional 5 percent is supposedly for BCs, but out of that, 10 percent is indirectly being granted to Muslims. Effectively, the Congress is making a 100 percent reservation for Muslims in Telangana in the name of the BC Declaration. This is not a BC Declaration, it is a Muslim Declaration,' asserted Bandi Sanjay. He further alleged there was a wider 'conspiracy' to turn Hindus into a minority in Telangana, warning that if what he called this 'poisonous tree' was left unchecked, it could spread across India. Minister Bandi Sanjay firmly stated he would oppose the bill unless Muslims were removed from the BC category and demanded that full 42 percent reservations go only to BCs. 'I will convince the Centre to approve the bill only after Muslims are excluded from the BC list,' he insisted. In a political challenge, Bandi Sanjay referred to claims that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would merge with the BJP if cases against K. Kavitha were filed, stating the proposal by K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) before CM Ramesh was 'absolutely true' and daring KTR to a public debate. 'If you have the courage, let's discuss in front of everyone and see who is right,' he challenged. On the hospital's new Critical Care Block, Sanjay emphasized that the entire Rs 23.75 crore funding came from the Centre's PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM ABHIM). He pressed the state government to quickly appoint medical staff and allocate operational funds, warning of adverse effects on patient care due to poor state support. He presented budget statistics, attributing the near doubling of health and education budgets to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014. He highlighted the rapid expansion of AIIMS, medical colleges, and the increase in MBBS and postgraduate seats across India. He also claimed that there have been revolutionary changes in healthcare access for the poor under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Switching focus to the Jubilee Hills by-election, the Union Minister strongly criticized the alleged demolition of the Banjara Hills Peddamma temple, attributing the action to an attempt to appease Muslim voters. 'If this is not rectified and an apology issued, Hindus will unite and send a clear message at the ballot box,' he warned. Bandi Sanjay also questioned Rahul Gandhi's religious loyalties and accused the Congress party of orchestrating a 'grand conspiracy' to grant Muslims undue reservations while dividing Hindus. 'Rahul Gandhi's comments and actions make his contempt for Hindus and India evident,' he alleged, urging the electorate to send a strong rebuke to the Congress in the upcoming local body polls.