By TCN Staff Reporter,
Patna: Contrary to soft approach and, at places, minority appeasement by BJP leaders in Bihar election campaign speeches, the political outfit of Sangh Parivar has shown its true color in its manifesto wherein Hindutva agenda has got prominent space. The manifesto opposes Muslim reservation – while its ally JDU supports it – and calls for ban on cow slaughter.
This is despite BJP’s appeal to Muslim voters last week to come closer to the party claiming it is not anti-Muslim party as it is known. The manifesto also exposed the real face of BJP state President Dr. C.P Thakur’s claim in public during the election campaign to be secular and friendly to the minority.
Ironically, on one hand the manifesto tried to appease Sangh Privar with repeating its anti-Muslim agenda. On the other hand it tried not to lose Muslims’ support totally. So, it attempted to woo the Muslim voters with promise to remove illegal occupation on Waqf properties and to make efforts for modernization of Madarsas in Bihar to provide quality and technical education to the Madarsa students.
The manifesto was released yesterday in the presence of party leaders including former party president M. Venkaiyah Naidu, BJP state president Dr. C. P. Thakur, spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi.
Interestingly, the manifesto promises to set up a commission to study the condition of the upper caste people of the state and to take suitable steps to improve the condition of economically weak people among them. It is to be noted here that the upper castes are angry with the Nitish government of JDU-BJP alliance apparently for its land reform and extremely pro-low caste policies.