Invoking BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya in his speech in Kozhikode on Sunday, Narendra Modi had referred to the word “parishkrit” (purification) while talking about empowering Muslims in the country.
Attacking Modi for the same, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday asserted that with if Modi wants to empower them by “purifying them”, his government is “not walking that talk,” as reported by The Indian Express.
“In Hindi, parishkrit means purification. (But) Muslims do not need purification from the BJP,” he said. “If he meant empowerment, then why isn’t the government implementing the Kundu Committee recommendations,” Owaisi asked. “Why are Patels and Jats being empowered but not Muslims in Maharashtra, despite a High Court order on reservation?”
The report quoted Owaisi as further saying:
“Cultural imperatives demand that Muslims should accept the integral and intellectual legacy of India. “We all know what he (Upadhyaya) stood for. He coined the term ‘Indianisation of Islam’, propounded in his theory of ‘Integral Humanism’ that Muslims cannot be trusted, (and) opposed Urdu.”
Countering the view, RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha said that “parishkrit” here implies that Muslims should evolve from the archaic mindset of viewing themselves as the “other” in India’s social fabric.
“They have to critically examine and accept pre-Islamic cultural and intellectual legacy of India,” the report quoted Sinha as saying.
In what was perceived as an attempt to reach out to the Muslim community, Modi had on Sunday said that Muslims should not shunned or rebuked, but empowered.
(Source: The Indian Express)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)