'Common Muslim considers PM Modi, CM Yogi as their well-wishers': UP Minority Welfare Minister

"The Opposition does not want Muslims to be associated with development," Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Minority Welfare Danish Azad Ansari told news agency PTI.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Minority Welfare Danish Azad Ansari on Wednesday accused the opposition parties of distorting the stand of the BJP and the RSS on Muslims and claimed that the minority community considers Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as their well-wishers. Ansari, the only Muslim minister in Uttar Pradesh, said the opposition parties are spreading falsehood that the BJP is against Muslims as they want to restrict the community members to a vote bank.

"The Opposition does not want Muslims to be associated with development. Today's reality is that the common Muslim considers PM Modi and CM Adityanath as their well-wishers," Ansari told PTI.

He said, "All Muslims have welcomed the statement made by the Prime Minister regarding the Muslim community on Tuesday. They will unite and play their role in the progress of the country under the leadership of the prime minister. The Pasmanda (backward) class of Muslims is a very large section. The progress of the Muslim community cannot be imagined without empowering them. The BJP government has worked to empower the Pasmanda community at every step."

Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday asked BJP members to reach out to every section of society, including minorities such as Bohras, Pasmandas and Sikhs, and work for them without electoral considerations, party sources said in New Delhi.

Asked about RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent statements on Muslims, Ansari said the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak was "never anti-Muslim".

"It would not be fair to say that Sangh's attitude towards Muslims is now softening. Sangh has always been a benevolent organisation of the country. As I said that the Opposition works to confuse the society in the wrong direction, it did the same for the Sangh," Ansari said.

Bhagwat had recently said Muslims have nothing to fear in India but they must abandon their claim of supremacy.

The Sangh chief had also visited a madrassa in Delhi a few days back. "There should be a better dialogue among every society, this is the thinking of the RSS," the minister said.

Accusing the opposition parties of presenting the Sangh's thinking in a "distorted" manner, Ansari said, "Definitely the opposition parties did this. Whom the Muslims used to consider as their well-wishers, but in reality, they are the biggest enemies of the Muslims. No leader of the opposition parties did concrete work to connect the Muslims to the mainstream of the society." 

"If we look at the graph of education and employment of the Muslim society during the tenure of previous Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav governments in the state and after 2017 till now under the BJP rule, then the Muslim society is moving forward on every criterion," Ansari claimed.