‘Will act as a bridge between BJP, minorities’

There have been communal incidents, including the most recent one in Pachora, which is in my home district of Jalgaon. I plan to hit the ground running and undertake a tour of the state starting from Pachora, which I will visit on Monday. The Commission will undertake a holistic survey of the reasons for these incidents. We will ensure that the strictest action is taken against perpetrators of violence. However, we also have to be fair and look at both sides of the picture. There is no point in deliberately blaming any particular community.

You face a challenging task of addressing the problems of minorities while being a member of the BJP. There is a lot of distrust among minorities against the BJP. How do you plan to address this?

In the larger scheme of life, it does not matter what political affiliation you have. What is more important is that your heart needs to be in the right place. If people are getting justice, I do not think they will have a reason to complain. A person, when he embarks on a journey, wants to have the assurance that the driver who is driving his car knows his job. The BJP is an excellent driver. It has made a person like me who has worked in the community as head of the Minority Commission. The minister of my department, Eknath Khadse, is also sensitive to the issues of the community and he understands the problems. We have just begun and our work will speak for itself. I am sure any fears that some people have against us will be dispelled seeing the way we work.

You say the fears of the community are unfounded but your predecessor was shunted out because the government did not like the way he commissioned a survey of Muslims in jail.

I would like to say that his removal had nothing to do with his commissioning of the survey. There is a saying in Hindi “Jiska shasan uska prashasan”. That rule was followed here as well. A person holding allegiance to the previous government was removed and I was appointed in his place.