New Delhi: The Darul Uloom Deoband may
view it as unlawful for Muslims to work in banks or opt for
insurance policies, but Minority Affairs Minister Salman
Khurshid on Saturday saw nothing wrong in it.
"I am Minority Affairs Minister as well as a Muslim
myself. I have both bank account and insurance. We want to
develop the community and hence (are) opening more banks in
minority areas," Khurshid told reporters here.
He was asked about his views on the fatwas issued by
the country`s largest Islamic seminary saying working in banks
and opting for insurance policy was against tenets of Islam.
The recent fatwas have drawn flak from many clerics
and progressive leaders.
The minister, at the same time, refused to get into
any "condemnation exercise" on the fatwas.
"My greatest condemnation of such things is through
the figures (of the success of minority schemes). Why should I
stop my creative work and get into condemnation exercise," he
said.
Khurshid said fatwas similar to the in which the
seminary held as un-Islamic women working in offices in
proximity with men and decreed that acceptance of her earnings
by a family was against the Sharia have had no adverse affect
on government`s programmes.
"No such announcement has ever proved to be a
hindrance to our schemes. There is no feedback that the
performance of our schemes has got affected due to any
propaganda. Why should we be worried, when our programmes are
not affected," Khurshid said.
The Minister also said that his ministry has launched
an ambitious scheme for development of leadership qualities
among minority women to uplift the status of Muslim women
along with those from other minorities.
"Nobody has stopped us from opening a bank. We are
also receiving demands for opening more such banks in the
minority areas," he said.
Asked about demands for Islamic banking in the
country, Khurshid said it was for the Reserve Bank of India to
take a view.
He said that the countries like the US had gone for
Islamic Banking and have huge deposits of Islamic Finance but
it is not happening in India because of constraints in the
banking system here.
‘No difference between party, govt on tackling Maoists’
Rejecting any differences
between the party and the government on the issue of tackling
Maoists, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said
both the government and the party are on the same page on the
issue.
"Government and party are on the same page over the
issue ... there are no differences of approach, only the
difference of words. Who says what is also related to what is
one`s responsibility," Minority Affairs Minister Salman
Khurshid told reporters here.
In the midst of the debate on the right approach to
dealing with Naxalism, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has
said the "root causes" of the problem need to be addressed
while tackling it decisively.
"While we must address acts of terror decisively and
forcefully, we have to address the root causes of Naxalism",
she said in the "Letter to the Congresspersons" in the first
remarks on the issue since a controversy had broken out over
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh`s article
criticising Home Minister P Chidambaram`s handling of the
problem.
PTI
