Union Minister Nitin Gadkari at NDTV's Townhall Show
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told some of his cabinet colleagues that his remarks abroad - cited as an insult to India by the opposition - were distorted and taken out of context, senior minister Nitin Gadkari has informed NDTV.
The PM said that while in China and Korea, his comments about a time when people wondered whether they "were being punished for a past life's sin by being born in India" were made in the context of explaining entrenched corruption and the lack of economic opportunities that used to motivate Indians to move to other countries for jobs.
Mr Modi's explanation was made at a meeting on Wednesday of top ministers that included Mr Gadkari, he told a young voter on NDTV's Townhall show that airs tonight at 9.
"Its not the first time that you people, the media, have played up one sentence of Narendra Modi and left out the rest," Mr Gadkari charged.
The opposition and critics of the PM have seized his comments to accuse Mr Modi of insulting India on an international platform.
On Monday, #ModiInsultsIndia trended heavily before being trounced by the retaliatory #ModiIndiasPride on Twitter.
Members of the government have been stressing that the PM's remarks were made in speeches to members of the Indian diaspora in Shanghai and Seoul to illustrate how far the country has come.
"Earlier, you felt ashamed of being born Indian. Now you feel proud to represent the country," he told hundreds of Indians in Shanghai last week.
Speaking on NDTV's The TownHall, Mr Gadkari argued that there was no need to "pretend or lie" about the many corruption scams that beleaguered India, adding that his government is set on correcting that image by altering the reality.
Asked whether it was fair for the PM to focus on the opposition and scams while on foreign soil, the Transport Minister quipped, "The PM has never taken Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi's names, but I guess somehow the
Topi fits the Congress just right when he talks about corruption."