Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday criticised “opportunistic alliances” and “dynastic parties” and said the Bharatiya Janata Party was here to serve the country. Modi’s comments come in the wake of the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections.

“They want to build their own empire but we want to empower people,” he said during an interaction with booth-level BJP workers from five parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu. “Unlike other parties, we are not in politics to divide and rule and for building vote bank. We are here to serve the country in every way.” The anti-BJP alliance was a “short-term” one done for the benefits of the Opposition, he added.

Modi said the upcoming General Elections were important for the BJP and the country. “On one hand we have our development agenda and on the other, there are opportunistic alliance and dynastic parties,” he said.

Modi questioned why the alliance was formed. “Shouldn’t you [Opposition] be confident about yourself?” he asked. “They know this is a working government.”

‘Centre trying to get justice for victims of 1984 violence’

Modi criticised the Congress governments of the past for their inability to bring Kartarpur Sahib under India during Partition and blamed them for the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, PTI reported.

In November, New Delhi and Islamabad laid the foundation stone for the corridor that will connect Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Punjab with the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Pakistan’s Narowal district. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, died in Kartarpur in 1539.

“A mistake took place in August, 1947,” Modi said. “It [the corridor] is an atonement of the mistake. An important place of our guru was only a few kilometers away. But it could not be made part [of India during Partition]...the corridor is an effort to reduce the damage.”

Modi made the statement while releasing a Rs 350 denomination commemorative silver coin to mark the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh.

On the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, Modi said the Centre was trying to provide justice to the people who suffered during the violence. “For decades, mothers, sisters, daughters and sons have shed tears, the law will deliver justice, wipe [their] tears,” the prime minister added.