Dip in communal cases under Modi govt: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

New Delhi: In the run up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi claimed on Tuesday that communal incidents have sinificantly declined since Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power. Hailing the Modi government for “creating an atmosphere wherein minorities are becoming a part of the country’s development process”, the minister asserted that the constitutional rights of minorities are absolutely safe and secure in the country, and said that no one could weaken them.

The BJP also mocked the proposed poll tie-up between the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the RLD as an alliance between “princes” to save family rule, and claimed that it “punctures” Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s developmental claims and underlines his “desperation”.

Addressing the inaugural session of the annual conference of state minority commissions, Mr Naqvi also asked political parties to remain alert and work for minority empowerment as he asserted that their accountability will be tested every six months when elections take place in some part of the country or the other. He said the Modi government’s “empowerment without appeasement” policy has created an atmosphere where minorities are also becoming part of the development process.

“Harmony is password of development. It should not be let hacked. The forces which are trying to hurt harmony, those should be isolated. We need to strengthen the unity of the country,” he said.

To buttress his point on the decline in communal incidents, the minister said the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) received 2,638 complaints in 2013-14. During the next fiscal, the number of complaints came down to 1,995. The commission received 1,974 complaints in 2015-16, and till December 31, 2016, has obtained 1,288 grievances. Most of these complaints were related to individual disputes.