NEW DELHI, Oct 11:
The Dadri lynching incident happened due to “inefficiency” of the UP government, Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla has said and asserted that the Prime Minister cannot be expected to speak on every issue the way others want him to.
“I don’t know why we always feel that on every issue, the Prime Minister should speak the language we want him to speak. That’s not the correct way….
“The Prime Minister has his own language. He has in his own way conveyed his dislike or his like, whichever he wants. We, as individuals, cannot put words into the mouth of the Prime Minister,” Heptulla said in an interview to PTI while underscoring that Modi has already made priorities of his government clear which was development of all.
The minister was reacting to the criticism by rival parties that Modi had not condemned the Dadri lynching where a man was killed over rumours that he was eating beef.
Heptulla said Modi has from the beginning espoused ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. Heptulla asserted that Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley too had made the view of the government clear on the incident.
“The Finance Minister, not only condemned this incident in Delhi itself but when he went abroad he sent a message from there that look these incidents make his job difficult,” she said.
Attacking the Samajwadi Party which is in power in Uttar Pradesh, Heptulla said it is the state government which is responsible for law and order and it should answer questions as to why it could not prevent the “condemnable incident”.
On the charge by rival parties that it was BJP-RSS leaders who had contributed to a polarised environment ahead of Bihar polls, Heptulla hit back saying why the state government could do nothing to prevent it.
“What are you (UP government) there for? It means you are not capable to stop this polarisation. It shows your inefficiency,” she said.
Asked about charges that Muslims feel more alienated under Modi government, she said, “Muslims have been feeling alienated since 1947. It is not now. So if you think this was a condemnable one incident, I might remind you how many condemnable incidents took place.
“Not one Muslim but many Muslims and Hindus died. They died in Moradabad, they died in Bhagalpur, they died in Meerut. And just because that government said they are secular, so we accepted the killings of minorities and the majority.”
Heptulla added that it was the UP government including minister Azam Khan, who is making “tall promises” of going to the United Nations, who should take the responsibility.
“Why did he (Khan) not see what was happening? If such polarisation was going on, what were their intelligence people doing. Could they not inform them? Why blame Narendra Modi for everything? Why blame Centre for everything,” she claimed.
Asked about her views on the Vice President’s call for affirmative action for uplift of Muslims, Heptulla said that in India the term affirmative action has come to mean reservations.
The present government’s ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ agenda is affirmative action, she said.
“Affirmative action means you affirm to do something for that particular class which is behind the normal state. This ministry is part of an affirmative action of which the Vice President talked about,” she said.
She said during Indira Gandhi’s time she talked about poverty, but she didn’t give any formula on how to eradicate poverty. “It was just a slogan” but Modi’s ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ is backed by several schemes like Jandhan Yojana and other programmes, she added. (PTI)
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