© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Calling it the first such programme for Pasmanda Muslims by a political party in the country, the BJP’s minority wing is organising a meeting of “intellectuals” of the community in Lucknow Sunday.
The meeting comes three months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the party to reach out to “the deprived and downtrodden” sections among all communities at the BJP National Executive in Hyderabad, seen as an outreach to the Pasmanda (backward class) Muslims.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak will be the chief guest at the meeting, dubbed the ‘Pasmanda Buddhijeevi Sammelan’, which will also be attended by a Minister of State in the UP government, Danish Azad Ansari. He is the only Muslim minister in the BJP state government, and a Pasmanda.
BJP minority wing national general secretary Sabir Ali, who will be the main speaker, will focus on the PM’s “vision”. The party expects over a thousand intellectuals from among Pasmanda Muslims to attend.
Among those to be “honoured” at the meeting will be the newly nominated Rajya Sabha MP from Jammu and Kashmir, Ghulam Ali Khatana, a BJP leader from the Gujjar Muslim community. An under-represented group settled in some of the most inhospitable areas of J&K, it also has a significant population in western UP and in Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies in central UP.
“The BJP will address the intellectuals on how over 4.5 crore people from the community have benefited under various government schemes rolled out by the Modi-led Union government and the Yogi Adityanath government in the state. This event will be a major platform for dialogue with the community,” Kunwar Basit Ali, the state president of the UP BJP minority wing, said, adding that Sunday’s meeting will be the first of several.
As per the break-up shared by Ali, over three crore Pasmanda Muslims in UP have got free rations, more than 1.25 lakh have got benefits of the Ayushman health card, 75 lakh have benefited from PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi, over 40 lakh have got free electricity connections, 20 lakh have got houses, etc.
Community leaders will also be asked to share the problems faced by their people, despite the schemes.
Ali said: “We will deliberate how to bring Pasmanda Muslims close to the BJP ahead of the urban local body elections and the Lok Sabha polls. The party will also give tickets to people from the community in the urban local body polls.” The elections to the urban local bodies are likely by the end of this year.
The BJP minority wing in UP has identified over 44,000 polling booths across the state with a significant population of Pasamanda Muslims, and will focus here. The target is to speak to at least a hundred beneficiaries from the Pasmanda Muslim community in each such booth.
The beneficiaries of its government schemes or “labharthis” have been identified by the BJP as a loyal vote bank and came true for the party in the recent Assembly elections. Another leader said there was no reason why the same should not apply in the case of the Muslims. “With welfare schemes, the BJP has successfully created a separate section of beneficiaries within the Muslims. No person in a society is untouchable for the BJP and every section has got the benefit of government schemes without any discrimination. Ahead of the local body and Lok Sabha elections, the party plans to convert these beneficiaries into voters for the BJP,” the leader said.
The BJP’s push to wean away Pasmanda Muslims – who form an overwhelming 85 per cent majority among the Muslims – coincides with both the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party wooing the community to add to their heft.
According to a Pasmanda leader, many castes have been identified as part of the Muslim communities which are socially, educationally and economically backward compared to the rest. These include Ansari, Mansoori, Kasgar, Raeen, Gujar, Ghosi, Qureshi, Idrisi, Naik, Faqeer, Saifi, Alvi and Salmani, among others.
