07-13-2008, 10:15 PM
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BJP to work for welfare of Muslims: Advani</b>
New Delhi (PTI): With an eye on minority votes, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani today said if elected to power, the party will work for the welfare of Muslims, irrespective of how many of them vote for it.
"Irrespective of what percentage of Muslims vote for the BJP and NDA, our government, if voted into office by the people of India, will work for the welfare, development and security of the Muslims," Advani said addressing a Muslim women's conference here on Sunday.
Asserting that the politics of minorytism must be defeated, the senior BJP leader alleged that some parties in India want Muslims to remain forever in the minority mindset.
"It is for this reason that I say that the BJP follows anti-minoritysm but is not anti-minority", he added.
Appealing to members of the community not to fall prey to the politics of minorityism, he clarified that the BJP is more interested in their welfare, all round development and security than in their votes.
Lashing out at 'other parties' for paiting BJP as an anti-Muslim party, Advani, who came to the forefront of National politics after the Ayodhya movement, said his party totally disbelieves in any kind of discrimination on the basis of religion.
"We accept and are indeed proud of-the religious diversity of India," he said adressing the seminar organised by the minority cell of the party.
Just because a section of the Muslim leadership mistakenly, and for its own vested interests, pursued the flawed policy of the 'two nation' theory, and brought about the tragic division of India, there is no justification to view Indian Muslims today through the prism of what happened 60 years ago, he observed.
BJP to work for welfare of Muslims: Advani</b>
New Delhi (PTI): With an eye on minority votes, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani today said if elected to power, the party will work for the welfare of Muslims, irrespective of how many of them vote for it.
"Irrespective of what percentage of Muslims vote for the BJP and NDA, our government, if voted into office by the people of India, will work for the welfare, development and security of the Muslims," Advani said addressing a Muslim women's conference here on Sunday.
Asserting that the politics of minorytism must be defeated, the senior BJP leader alleged that some parties in India want Muslims to remain forever in the minority mindset.
"It is for this reason that I say that the BJP follows anti-minoritysm but is not anti-minority", he added.
Appealing to members of the community not to fall prey to the politics of minorityism, he clarified that the BJP is more interested in their welfare, all round development and security than in their votes.
Lashing out at 'other parties' for paiting BJP as an anti-Muslim party, Advani, who came to the forefront of National politics after the Ayodhya movement, said his party totally disbelieves in any kind of discrimination on the basis of religion.
"We accept and are indeed proud of-the religious diversity of India," he said adressing the seminar organised by the minority cell of the party.
Just because a section of the Muslim leadership mistakenly, and for its own vested interests, pursued the flawed policy of the 'two nation' theory, and brought about the tragic division of India, there is no justification to view Indian Muslims today through the prism of what happened 60 years ago, he observed.