The Pasmanda Muslim community has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that “efforts should be made to reach out to socially backward minorities” like them, with their leaders even willing to take a step towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
The BJP’s focus on Pasmanda Muslims shows the party wants to break into voters, which were traditionally considered the vote bank of opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh.
The leaders claim that 80-85% of the minority population is Pasmanda Muslim. In the Yogi 2.0 government, Danish Azad Ansari, who hails from the community, has been made a state minister, sending a message.
Apart from this, the Yogi 2.0 government has also appointed Javed Ansari as the Chairman of UP Board of Madarsa Education, while Chaudhary Kafil-Ul-Wara, hailing from the weaver community, has been appointed the Chairman of UP Urdu Akademi.
The Chief of Pasmanda Muslim Society, Anees Mansoori, alleged that opposition parties have failed to look at the marginalised sections of Muslims.
Mansoori, who has been a former state minister, told News18: “This community will go towards whoever talks about the development of the Pasmanda Muslims. For the past 15 years, I have been working to organise the Pasmanda Muslim society, seeking their betterment. I welcome the concern shown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his working committee meeting in Hyderabad. PM Modi should also do something for the community. We are ready to take a leap towards PM Modi, if he takes a step towards our community.”
“Our three main demands are reservation for Dalit Muslims as per section 341 of Indian Constitution, paragraph 3. Dalit Muslims used to get reservation from 1936 to 1950, but it was taken away by the Congress government in 1950. The way reservation for Sikhs and Buddhists have been reinstated, ours should be reinstated too. The second is to implement the Karphuri Thakur formula like Bihar, so that there is no fear of any kind of religious conversion. Our third demand is employment opportunities for Pasmanda Muslims and help under the MSME section,” added Mansuri.
Accusing the opposition parties of ignoring the community, he said, “There has been no special place us in the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. These parties never thought of giving respect to Pasmanda Muslims, now if our PM is thinking about giving respect to the community, I welcome it.”
The BJP recently won the by-elections held in Rampur and Azamgarh parliamentary constituencies. Both these constituencies were considered strongholds of the SP and have a large number of Muslim voters.
Recently at the BJP’s National Working Committee meeting in Hyderabad, Modi, while underlining the motto of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, had said that the BJP workers should reach out to the marginalised and weaker sections of the minorities.
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