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AS A debate was sparked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s use of the word “parishkrit” vis-a-vis the minority community during his address at the BJP National Council in Kozhikode Sunday, the AIMIM and the RSS took contrasting positions Monday.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that if Modi meant empowerment for Muslims by the word “parishkrit”, his government is “not walking that talk”. “In Hindi, parishkrit means purification. (But) Muslims do not need purification from the BJP. 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?”
Senior RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha, however, said, “Parishkrit means Muslims should evolve from the old mindset – (they should) stop seeing themselves as the ‘other’ in Indian civilisation. They have to critically examine and accept pre-Islamic cultural and intellectual legacy of India.”
In what was seen as an attempt to reach out to the Muslim community, Modi had Sunday quoted Sangh ideologue and former Jana Sangh president Deendayal Upadhyaya and said, “Do not reward them, do not rebuke them; empower them.”
Sinha today said: “Those who are attacking Modji for his speech, I ask them to read Nehru’s address at AMU in January 1948, in which he asked Muslims: do you believe in part of intellectual and cultural legacy of India? Do you feel thrilled at it or consider it alien?”
“Cultural imperatives demand that Muslims should accept the integral and intellectual legacy of India.” Owaisi said, “We all know what he (Upadhyay) stood for. He coined the term ‘Indianisation of Islam’, propounded in his theory of ‘Integral Humanism’ that Muslims cannot be trusted, (and) opposed Urdu.”