INDIA DOESN’T NEED CERTIFICATE ON INCLUSIVE PROGRESS: MUKHTAR NAQVI

Our work speaks louder than words, says the Minister for Minority Affairs in the Narendra Modi government; says that the Modi government is working with the mantra of ‘development with dignity’ and ‘empowerment without appeasement’.

Union Minister for Minority Affairs and Deputy Leader of the Rajya Sabha, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is among the prominent faces of the Bharatiya Janata Party fielded by the party to counter political narratives, controversies and reach out to

Opposition leaders in times of crisis. Naqvi, who has been the vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and a national spokesperson, is the only member in the present Narendra Modi Cabinet who was a member of the 1998 Atal Behari Vajpayee Cabinet. He spoke to The Sunday Guardian on the domestic and international criticism that the government is being subjected to over its “anti-muslim approach”, communal riots, use of bulldozers and other similar issues.

Q: Incidents of communal violence have seen an increasing trend in recent times. Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal have seen such incidents where FIR against practitioners of Hindu and Muslim faiths have been filed for indulging in riots. How worried are you over these developments?

A: Not a single major communal riot has taken place in India since 2014. There were some conspiracies to give a communal colour to criminal incidents. During the governments of so-called “champions of pseudo secularism”, the country had witnessed Maliana riots or Bhiwandi riots or Meerut riots or other more than 5,000 major riots where curfew used to be imposed for several months and even for several years. Not a single such major riot has taken place in the country since the Modi government has come to power. Some fringe elements, who are unable to digest the peace and prosperity in the country, try to disturb India’s inclusive culture and commitment. But such elements will not succeed in their nefarious designs. Strict action will be taken against those who try to disturb harmony in the society.

Q: Communal sensitivity and law and order are among the most important criteria that are looked at by foreign investors and conglomerates before investing in any country. Do you agree with the assessment that failure to curb such communal violence in the country will hit India’s effort to achieve the target of $5 trillion economy? A: The “Modi bashing brigade” has been constantly trying to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Good Governance” and India as a part of their conspiracy engineering since 2014. Sometimes they write letters, sometimes they raise the bogey of intolerance and Islamophobia. But they have failed to point out even a single incident of discrimination against any community under the Modi government. While on the one hand, Prime Minister Modi has become an “icon” of in