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Centre plans holding 'progressive panchayats'

Last Updated 27 September 2016, 20:17 IST
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outreach to Muslims at BJP’s Kozhikode conclave, Union minorities affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will hold "progressive panchayats" among Muslims and dalits ahead of assembly polls to crucial states, including Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

The latest “empowerment and not appeasement” outreach exercise outlined by Modi in his concluding speech at the BJP national council on Sunday, will roll out with Naqvi’s visit to Mewat on Thursday.

That part of Haryana had witnessed communal tension over beef and two dalit women were gang-raped, allegedly by cow vigilante groups. The BJP and its ideological mentor RSS apprehend a Muslim-Dalit consolidation following attacks on them by cow vigilante groups. To counter that negative perception, it has come up with different programmes to control possible damage.

BJP sources said that Naqvi would travel to other states over the next three to four months to hold “progressive panchayats” to dispel myths about NDA. For instance, the ministers will concession loans offered by National Minorities Development Finance Corporation (NMDFC).

Naqvi, for instance, visited Dadri on Tuesday on the first anniversary of  lynching of Mohammad Aqlakh of western UP, by villagers on the suspicion that he and his family had beef. Insisting that communal tensions have reduced under  NDA regime, the union minister stressed, "We want such incidents to come down to zero. We are working on that."

When his reaction was sought on PM desiring “Parishkrit”,  meaning purification (in English) of Muslims, in his Kozhikode speech which triggered a controversy, Naqvi defended Modi and stated that he was right in demanding their empowerment.
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(Published 27 September 2016, 20:17 IST)

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