NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asked BJP workers to have a direct connect with people, disregarding the coverage of recent events by "mediums" which he suggested were unfair and had blanked out pro-government rallies.

Addressing the party cadre at the inauguration of J P Nadda as BJP chief, the PM said BJP should not expect any help from "mediums" and should, instead, reach out directly to people. "There is a group which has been aligned with Congress and will remain so in future as well. There is no need to waste time on that score. Each day, they show 10-15 anti-government events but you will not get to see far bigger events where 50,000-100,000 people come out to support the government ,” he said.

“Madhyamon se samarthan milne ki ummeed nahin aur hamein madad se jeene ki aadat bhi nahin hain (the mediums are not going to support us and we have never been dependent on them),” Modi said.

The PM’s remarks appeared to signal unhappiness over media coverage of the confrontation over the Citizenship Amendment Act, though he refrained from referring to the unrest over changes in the citizenship law as well as from specifically mentioning the media, settling instead for “medium” (madhyam).

While BJP’s annoyance with a section of the media for its alleged bias is known, it was the first time that it had been articulated by the PM in public. However, a defiant Modi exhorted BJP to tough out the media’s "bias" instead of being deterred by it. He traced what he called the "alliance between mediums and opposition" to the larger ideological disagreement, and asserted that BJP had thrived in spite of the nexus. “People’s faith in us remains intact,” he said to applause from workers who shouted “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Jai Shri Ram” through the speech.

"They are opposed to our very ideology. Since they have been rejected by people, they have been left with no option but to forge and spread lies and use their ecosystem to fan confusion. We have been watching the consistent attempt to project each issue in a particular light and spin things," the PM said.

Modi, however, told the cadre not to be distracted. “Ye chalta rahega aur hum bhi chalte rahenge, isi vishwas se aage badhna hai (They will continue to do what they are doing but we will continue to follow our path, we have to move forward with the same belief),” he said.

Making light of the resistance from "mediums", Modi said BJP had succeeded because its workers had forged bonds of trust with people, giving the party a strength that led to formation of the first single-party, non-Congress majority government in 2014 and its return with a bigger mandate five years later. He added that BJP was not here for a short period but would serve the country for a long time.

