Bangalore: “How many seats will BJP win?”, “What has BJP done to improve the lives of women?”, “When will Article 370 be revoked?”

These were some of the tough questions which P Muralidhar Rao, the national general secretary of the BJP had to answer.

A Town Hall was arranged in Bengaluru on Wednesday in which around 500 youngsters took part. The endeavour was taken up with a view to rubbing shoulders with the young citizens, to try to understand their pulse and impulse and involve them in the nation-building process.

Concentrating on four important aspects – security, nationalism, economy and harmony among religions – Rao said the BJP was always a party that put nation first. To corroborate him claim, he gave the example of how Atal Bihari Vajpayee had gone to Geneva when Congress’s PV Narasimha Rao was the prime minister. At that point in time, he added, Vajpayee never paid any heed to the fact that the Congress government would get credit due to his efforts.

Stressing on the fact that India’s nationalism was based on its spirituality, Rao reiterated that inclusiveness was at the very backbone of the BJP and it never discriminated against the Muslims or people of any other religion.

“When in Rome, be a Roman,” is a popular saying. True to it, Rao did not miss out on an opportunity to issue a diatribe against the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition parties in Karnataka. He took the example of chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s tweet in which he had sought not to celebrate the Balakot air strikes as it would induce polarisation among the people.

He said, “Indian Muslims identify themselves with India. How will the Balakot celebrations help divide the masses? This is the way how Kumaraswamy thinks.”

In relation to revocation of Article 370, the national secretary said that Kashmir is an integral part of India and is like any other state of India.

Lastly, before he signed off, he made it a point to impress upon the youngsters to cast their vote and not allow a redux of the state political uncertainty to happen at the centre.