Empower Muslims, treat them as your own: Modi

anniversary at the BJP Council meeting, PM Modi said at a time when nationalism was looked at in “negative light” and there were questions on minorities should be treated, Upadhyaya had suggested a solution.

“Don’t reward Muslims. Don’t rebuke Muslims. Empower them. Don’t think of them as votebanks or commodities, think of them as your own,” he quoted Upadhyaya as saying.

The current BJP government’s motto, “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” is on the same line, he said. “We want the most underprivileged to be the first to progress.”

For equality, those at the top need to lend a hand to those at the lower rungs, he added. This, he said, was intimately connected to development and progress.

The Prime Minister spoke at length about secularism, balanced and inclusive growth and need for electoral reforms.

At the meet, he also announced that India will ratify the Paris climate deal on Oct. 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Modi made the announcement at a meeting of his party’s leaders in the southern Indian town of Kozhikode, but gave no further details.

India accounts for around 4.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this month that 60 countries accounting for around 48 percent of emissions had already joined the agreement.

The Paris Agreement asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius.

Last week, Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said he expects to announce that countries accounting for over 55 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have formally joined the treaty — the threshold needed to trigger the landmark agreement — when he presides over the 22nd UN Climate Conference in Marrakesh that starts on Nov. 7.