Don’t reward Muslims, don’t shun, ‘purify’: PM

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Kozhikode, September 25

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have opened the Pandora’s box with his thoughts on Muslims today. 

Speaking at the party’s National Council meeting here, echoing the thoughts of party ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay, the Prime Minister said the Muslims should neither be “rewarded” or considered a “vote bank”, nor “shunned” or “treated with hatred”. They should instead be “purified” and considered our own. (Musalman ka na puraskar karen, na tiraskar karen, unka parishkar karen. Vote ki mandi ka maal na manen, na ghrina ki vastu, unhe apna samjhen)."

Editorial: Message from Kozhikode

Claiming the word “parishkar” meant “empowerment”, BJP leaders maintained, “The PM was talking about the need to empower the Muslim community and not just treat them as a vote bank.” However, the dictionary meaning of the word is "refinement”, “cleansing” and “purification”. 

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The RSS believes that the Muslims in the neighbourhood were originally Hindus. Therefore, they should be purified through “ghar wapsi” and integrated with the majority community.

Notably, the PM, addressing a rally at the Calicut beach yesterday, had sought to remind the people of Pakistan about their territorial loyalty to India. “Let me remind the people of Pakistan that before 1947, your ancestors considered this land (India) as their motherland,” he had said.

Quoting RSS ideologue Upadhyay to make clear the BJP’s viewpoint about the Muslims, the PM said many had made the mistake of misunderstanding the BJP and had distorted the definition of secularism. “Sarv jan sukhaye, sarv jan hitaye. No part of the society should be untouchable for us.

“Fifty years ago, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay had given this idea to us. It is not a mere election slogan. We sincerely believe in the uplift of the Dalits, the backward communities, the downtrodden, the exploited and the farmers," Modi said.

The BJP meeting in Kozhikode is intended to reaffirm the ideology of Upadhyay, who was elected president of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh 50 years ago, with the launch of the party’s “garib kalyan” agenda. The BJP functionaries say this is important if the party is to win the next elections. “Economic reforms must lead to garib kalyan,” they say. The focus on “garib kalyan” marks a reorientation of the politics of the BJP, traditionally seen as a party representing the urban middle class.

Speaking on “antyodaya”, Modi said: “Bharat Mata will not progress if any state or region remains under-developed and backward.”

The PM condemned attacks on BJP and the RSS workers allegedly by Left supporters. “The perpetrators of these atrocities will not be spared. We will expose them in a democratic manner,” he said.