BJP now going all out to woo ‘backward’ Muslims

New Delhi: In yet another attempt to reach out to the minorities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the Muslim community should not allow the triple talaq issue to be politicised, and urged Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind leaders to initiate the process of reforms.

Mr Modi, at a meeting with a 25-member delegation of Muslim leaders under the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind umbrella, reiterated his views voiced a few days back when he had expressed the hope that intellectuals from the community would come forward to fight the practice.

The BJP has, meanwhile, decided to go all out to woo the minority community, particularly with the backward communities, including OBCs and dalits, moving towards the BJP. But the party’s primary target remains backward Muslims. Both the BJP and the Centre are now trying to sell the new legislation, that gives constitutional status to the OBC commission, to backward Muslims. Minister of state for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is leading the charge to woo the backward Muslims, on Tuesday said the poor Muslims have been unable to take advantage of welfare measures.

Addressing Muslims from various states, Mr Naqvi said parties like the Congress, Trinamul Congress and JD(U) had come to power on the strength of Muslims’ support, but had blocked the bill that would have “benefited” the backward members of the community.

Mr Modi told party leaders at the BJP national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar last month to reach out to the backward Muslims. He said then they will also stand to benefit from the bill, which envisages the setting up of a National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (NCSEBC), with judicial powers and constitutional status.

The bill, though passed by the Lok Sabha in the recent Budget Session of Parliament, had later got stalled in the Rajya Sabha.