Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejected allegations of discrimination towards minorities in India, cracking down on critics and any talk of amending the Constitution to make the country an explicitly Hindu republic, and said he aspires to create conditions where everyone sees value in investing and expanding operations here.

In an interview with the British daily Financial Times (FT), Modi called speculation about altering the Constitution meaningless. He said his government’s “most transformative steps”—from a “Clean India” nationwide toilet-building campaign to bringing nearly 1bn people online through a path-breaking digital public infrastructure push—have been realised without doing so and through public participation.

Modi said he is “very confident of victory” in the 2024 national polls as people realise that the nation is on “the cusp of a take-off”. “They want this flight to be expedited, and they know the best party to ensure this is the one which brought them this far,” he told FT in what the paper described as a rare interview and additional written responses.