Mumbai: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said political leaders who sell dreams to people, but fail to make them a reality get “beaten up” by the public. The statement has prompted speculation from opposition leaders, who interpreted it as a swipe at the minister’s own party.The minister, who handles a host of infrastructure-related portfolios in the Narendra Modi government, asserted he is a doer and delivers on his promises.“People like (political) leaders who sell them dreams. But if these dreams are not realised, then they beat them up (politically) as well,” Gadkari said, speaking at a function here.“I am not the one who only sells dreams, but I deliver 100% what I talk about,” he said.Gadkari, a former BJP president, also spoke about his stint as Maharashtra’s PWD minister when the Shiv Sena-BJP government was in power (1995-99) in the state.“The mediapersons in Mumbai know what kind of a person I am as they have seen how I complete projects. They do trust me,” said the 61-year-old politician from Nagpur.Also Read: The Dissenting Voice Is Gadkari’s, but the Words May Have Come From the RSS“People used to laugh at me when I, as PWD minister, used to claim that I was going to build over 50 flyovers in Mumbai, and bring down the travel time between Mumbai and Pune to merely two hours (via 91-km expressway).“I was ridiculed but I proved them wrong and completed every project I had promised,” Gadkari said.AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi commented that Gadkari was showing the prime minister the mirror in a “subtle way”.@PMOIndia sir @nitin_gadkari is showing you the mirror ,and in a very subtle way …….. https://t.co/W8CvyC2Rmr— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) January 27, 2019RJD leader Manoj K. Jha also expressed shock at the comments.At the function, Bollywood actor Isha Koppikar joined the BJP and was made working president of the party’s women transport wing.Gadkari comments in the past have also been interpreted as being critical of the BJP government at the Centre, especially the Modi-Amit Shah duo.Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Credit: PTIIn December 2018, after the BJP lost its hold over the state governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Gadkari said “leadership should have the tendency to own up defeat and failures”. This was interpreted as a criticism of the BJP’s leadership, but Gadkari later claimed that the his comments were misinterpreted.He slammed this as a sinister campaign by some opposition parties and a section of the media to twist his comments and “draw politically motivated inferences to malign” him and his party.At the valedictory function of the annual Marathi literary meet at Yavatmal on January 13, Gadkari said politicians should not interfere in other fields. The meet was embroiled in a controversy after an invitation to writer Nayantara Sahgal was withdrawn apparently under pressure from a political party.In October 2018, the Union minister created a storm when he hinted that the BJP deliberately made “tall promises” to come to power. He said,”We were very confident that we would never come to power, so we were advised to make tall promises. Now that we are in power, the public reminds us of those promises made by us. However, these days, we just laugh and move on.”