New Delhi: BSP MP Danish Ali on Sunday dubbed the BJP’s outreach to ‘Pasmanda’ Muslims a “farce” and alleged that the ruling party wants “Muslim-mukt” legislatures throughout the country.
He accused the BJP of indulging in “majority appeasement” and targeting minorities by allegedly getting false cases registered against them and demolishing their houses using bulldozers.
The MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha also said it is the moral responsibility of Opposition parties, particularly the ones whom the minority community used to vote for, to raise Muslims’ issues but rued that in this era of “majoritarian politics”, the issues of Muslims have been isolated.
“Political analysts have convinced all the secular parties that addressing and vehemently raising the minority issues is counterproductive for getting the votes of the majority community. That is why every political party is shying away from raising Muslims’ issues,” he told PTI in an interview.
Ali said the BJP has “created so much hatred” that attention gets diverted from real issues.
“The policies of this government are of majority appeasement. They are policies aimed at appeasement of hatred. They talk about appeasement but in reality it is the BJP government that is indulging in appeasement of the majority,” the Bahujan Samaj Party MP alleged.
The BJP keeps on harping on appeasement but the real appeasement is showing in how fact checkers are put in jail and hate mongers are provided security, Ali said in an apparent reference to the case of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair.
The BJP’s argument that Muslim appeasement took place in the past is demolished by the Sachar Committee report, Ali said.
If there was appeasement of Muslims then this would not have been their condition now, he said.
“What is happening in Sri Lanka? There also majority appeasement was taking place. The same thing is happening here. The focus in Sri Lanka was not on economic issues, the focus was not on the agricultural sector,” he said.
“There is a need to focus on economic issues, we are going down in every sphere. The government is focussing on polarisation because they think this is the best way to survive,” Ali said.
Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion that party workers should reach out to downtrodden sections among minorities such Pasmanda Muslims, Ali said, “It is a farce. Had anybody stopped them from fielding Muslims in Uttar Pradesh polls?”
“The BJP said they want Congress-mukt Bharat but their real intention is Opposition-mukt Bharat, their real intention is Muslim-mukt legislatures, in states and in Parliament, and that is where they are moving forward,” he said.
They have already achieved “Muslim-mukt” BJP parliamentary party, he said.
Ali alleged that the BJP wants to “politically disenfranchise” Muslims and they are succeeding.
Ali’s remarks come in the wake of the BJP’s minority wing having prepared a blueprint to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims, among the most backwards in the community.
Asked about the near “washout” of the first week of Parliament’s Monsoon Session, Ali said the Opposition will also have to revisit its strategy on this.
“My take is that what I am observing from the last few sessions is that the important questions always come in the first week of the session. For example my question on MSP was on Tuesday, there was a disruption in the House and I could not ask that question,” he said.
Ali claimed that the government wants the initial phase of a session washed out because the important questions on which the government can be cornered are in the first week.
So the Opposition will also have to change its strategy, he added.
Ali also dismissed the government’s suggestion that discussion on price rise will take place once Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recovers from Covid.
“Discussion can take place, the junior minister can take notes, the finance minister can watch it in isolation and reply in the House when she is fine. It is a false argument… the government wants to avoid it,” he alleged.
