By Sushil Kumar,
New Delhi: Distancing the Narendra Modi government from controversies such as the meat ban in parts of India and “ghar wapsi” call to Bollywood music director A.R. Rahman, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said it was not “involved” in such matters as it “respects everybody’s freedom”.
“The NDA government has nothing to do with issues like meat ban in certain parts of the country,” Naqvi told IANS in an interview here.
Asked about the controversy related to Rahman, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said the fatwa and ‘ghar wapsi’ call were a work of “ill minds”.
“A.R. Rahman is an asset to India. He, like any other citizen of the country, is free to do whatever he wants to do in terms of his work… disturbing him was a work of ill minds,” he said, adding that the government was busy doing its work and its full concentration was on the overall development of the country.
Naqvi blamed the opposition for all there controversies.
“These are the handiwork of opposition parties which have been reduced to ashes,” he said, but did not take any names.
The Modi government, he said, had its plate full and was actually busy in developing the country by coming up with out-of-the-box ideas and new thinking in solving and addressing long-pending problems.
On some rightwing people seek to try to impose their ideas and practices on minority communities, Naqvi said: “Indian people are strong enough to reject anything wrong coming from anybody.”
“Indians are strong and sensible enough to reject any nonsense coming from any quarter or section of the society,” Naqvi told IANS.
About the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar, he said that his party was ready.
“Every election has its own significance for the party. We don’t take anything lightly in terms of elections, and in this case, too, the party is prepared for the polls,” he said, adding that the BJP and its allies would win with comfortable margin.
“It will be a GDP (growth, development and progress) verses ABC (anarchy, bad governance and corruption) election in Bihar and the BJP-led coalition will win it,” he said. The youth of the state, which constitutes over 70 percent of the population, wants development and better socio-economic conditions, he added.
On the parliament logjam by opposition parties, Naqvi said he hoped that the winter session goes by smoothly and all important business is completed.
“We are in touch with all political parties and most of them have agreed that there should be proper business transacted in both houses of parliament,” he said.
(Sushil Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])