Outreach towards marginalised shouldn’t be limited to just Hindus: PM Modi in Hyderabad

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s outreach towards marginalised communities should be expanded and not limited to just Hindus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instructed party colleagues at the ongoing national executive committee meeting, functionaries aware of details said.

The party has benefitted electorally by giving political space to marginalised communities and through targeted interventions and policies focused on Dalits, scheduled tribes (STs) and the other backward classes.

Citing the BJP’s recent electoral wins in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh and Rampur, where Muslims are present in large numbers, Modi is learnt to have said the party should examine how marginalised Muslim communities who have benefitted from the government’s policies have lent support to the party.

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The Prime Minister’s comment was made during a presentation on the state by Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, according to a functionary. “He said the outreach towards the marginalised communities should not be limited to Hindus alone,” the functionary said on condition of anonymity.

Even as political opponents have accused BJP of communal politics and consolidating the Hindu vote bank by wooing marginalised communities, the ruling party claims its pro-people policies are intended for all communities and faiths. It is now banking on marginalised sections among the minorities who have benefitted from social welfare schemes.

Modi’s comments come close on the heels of a campaign initiated by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliate to delist those STs who have converted to Islam and Christianity. The RSS is the ideological progenitor of the BJP.