Underscoring his contribution to uplifting Muslim women and backward sections in the minority community, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 22 accused the Congress and the Samajwadi Party of following a policy of “appeasement” and yet doing nothing to uplift the socio-economic condition of the Muslim community. Addressing a rally in Aligarh, Mr. Modi said he saved the lives of Muslim women and their families by “passing a law against [instant] Triple Talaq.”
Mr. Modi said when he worked for the interests of Pasmanda (backward) Muslims, the Opposition got worried because, over the years, people at the top had gotten away with all the advantages.
Referring to his friendship with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince (Mohammed Bin Salman), Mr. Modi said he had ensured an increase in Haj quota and relaxation in visa norms. “The government took an important decision by allowing Muslim women to go for the Haj without a mehram [male companion]. I am getting blessings of hundreds of such women.”
Later in the day, in a historic move, the government announced Prof. Naima Khatoon as the next Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. She is the first woman to be appointed the V-C of the university that holds an influential position in the Muslim world.
Earlier, continuing with his thinly veiled barb against the Opposition, Mr. Modi accused the Opposition again of planning to redistribute people’s property and wealth if it was voted to power.
“Congress has an eye on the mangalsutra of our mothers and daughters,” he said.
Giving it to the influence of “Maoist and Communist ideology” on the Congress, Mr. Modi alleged that “the Congress wants to usurp your hard-earned wealth and property with its ‘hand’.” The Prime Minister claimed, “the shehzada [prince] of the Congress would get your property, vehicles, and fixed deposits investigated and redistribute it.” If voted to power, he elaborated, the Congress would conduct a survey and if it was found that “you have two houses, one in the city and one in the village, they will impound one of them and give it to someone else.” This, he said, was “a Communist thought that has doomed many countries.”
Mr. Modi reminded the first-time voters of times when serial bomb blasts were a regular feature. Newspapers used to carry advertisements cautioning people not to touch unclaimed objects. “This has become a thing of the past because of Modi and Yogi.”
After heaping praise on the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister for improving the law and order situation in the State, Mr. Modi made a bid to free Mr. Adityanath from the ‘bulldozer Baba’ image. He said “Those who identify Yogiji with a bulldozer” must be told that Uttar Pradesh had made unprecedented economic progress during his term.
Former Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, Prof. Tariq Mansoor, who is now a vice-president of the BJP, was present on stage. Interestingly, Prof. Mansoor was seated next to party candidate Satish Gautam. The two shared a thorny past as Mr. Gautam attacked the AMU administration during the Jinnah portrait controversy and the anti-CAA protests on the campus.
Facing anti-incumbency, the two-time MP is locked in a triangular contest with Samajwadi Party’s Bijendra Singh and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Hitendra Kumar Upadhyay.
A BJP turncoat, Mr. Upadhyay is expected to dent the Brahmin votes of Mr. Gautam.
With Rashtriya Lok Dal president Chaudhary Jayant Singh absent on Monday and hardly any RLD flag in the crowd, local observers said Mr. Singh, a former MP from the Congress, who has a hold over the Muslim vote, will also get a sizeable number of Jat votes.
