'Mamata sends me kurtas, sweets': In 'non-political interview' with Akshay Kumar, Narendra Modi says he has 'good friends in Opposition'

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said he has many “good friends” in the Opposition, adding that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee sends personally-selected kurtas and sweets to him. “I have many good friends in the Opposition. We do eat food together once or twice a year. Long time back, when I was not even the chief minister (of Gujarat), I had gone to Parliament for some work. There, Ghulam Nabi Azad and I had a friendly conversation. When we came out, the media asked, ‘how can you be friends with Azad as you belong to the RSS.’ Ghulam Nabi gave a good answer. While we were standing together, he said it’s not like how people think outside. Maybe the way we, the people of all organisations, are connected as a family can’t be imagined outside),” Modi said in an interaction with actor Akshay Kumar. [caption id=“attachment_6507071” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Narendra Modi’s interview to Akshay Kumar. ANI[/caption] “Even today, Mamata Didi herself selects one or two kurtas for me in a year. Even Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina sends sweets to me three to four times a year specially from Dhaka. When Mamata Didi got to know this, then she also started sending sweets for me one or two times a year,” he added. Interestingly, Mamata Banerjee has mostly been critical of the Modi-led NDA government and has openly opposed various initiatives, including the Goods and Services Tax and demonetisation. On Sunday, Mamata had accused the prime minister of causing hardship to the people through demonetisation and said that the electorate in West Bengal will make him pay by not casting a “single vote” for him. “In the (2014) election, Narendra Modi’s BJP party had won. But in the past five years, the government betrayed Bengal. He (Modi) is coming here and saying lies. He comes flying to Bengal at the time of elections and is nowhere to be seen in other times,” she said at a public rally. On 4 April, as well, Mamata had called Modi “Hitler’s uncle”. A day before that, she had called him “expiry babu” and said, “His government has expired. You (Modi) said in Siliguri that we did not do anything for the poor. What have you done in the past five years? I have never seen a prime minister telling these many lies. Do not speak lies every day.” On 3 April, Modi had called Mamata “speed breaker Didi”.