Modi trying to woo Pasmanda Muslims? They won’t join communal forces: Ali Anwar

By Dr Abhay Kumar*
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to woo Pasmanda Muslims during the BJP workers' meeting in Bhopal, former Member of Parliament and leader of the Pasmanda Movement Ali Anwar has said that Pasmanda Muslims will not join the communal forces because secularism is in their DNA.

In an online interview with the writer, he called the nine-year rule of the Modi Government a failure, which has not given relief to the people, including Pasmanda Muslims.
Ali Anwar, the author of the widely acclaimed book "Masawat ki Jung" (2001), has questioned the sincerity of PM Modi: “The Prime Minister has now expressed concern about the conditions of Pasmanda Muslims, but why has he been silent about the suffering of Bilkis Bano, who is also a Pasmanda Muslim woman."
He has further said that the struggle of Pasmanda Muslims is not confined to securing reservation. Rather, the struggle is also being waged for dignity and security. That is why the Pasmanda Movement and communal politics cannot go together.
When asked to comment on the PM’s reference to the discrimination faced by Pasmanda Muslims at the hands of an elite section of their community, Ali Anwar has said that his real agenda is not to secure their welfare but to trigger internal fighting between the upper caste Ashraf Muslims and backward and Dalit Pasmanda Muslims as the BJP has earlier created a similar division between backward and extremely backward classes, Jatavs and non-Jatavs and Yadav versus non-Yadavs.
---
*PhD (Modern History), Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

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