Modi debates Ayodhya with Deobandis in closed-door meet
According to sources in Gandhinagar, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi met a range of Muslim leaders including the Deobandis in the last week of Ramazan. In an off-the-record conversation, a Muslim community leader from Ahmedabad said that an important Islamic scholar and a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board had a 90-minute discussion with Modi during Ramzan.
The source said, “To the surprise of visiting Islamic scholars from Uttar Pradesh, Modi assured them that the Ayodhya is not the issue of the coming elections.”
The source claimed that Modi gave three reasons while debating the controversial issue of Hindu nationalists’ demand to build a Ram temple where the Babri mosque stood once.
Modi has allegedly said that if former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government in its six-year-term could not solve it, then why are the Muslims worry now? He also quoted the UP court judgement on the issue and said that issue is now in the Supreme Court.
Modi has reportedly also said that more than 50 per cent voters were born after 1989 --when the Babri mosque-Ram temple movement took shape. These young voters do not resonate much with the issue.
The source also said that Modi also defended his controversial remark in an interview to Reuters to visiting Muslims.
In the interview when asked if he had any regrets over the 2002 Gujarat riots, he had said, "Even If I am in the back seat of a car and a puppy (kutte ka bachcha) comes under the wheels, isn't it painful? It is. Whether I am a chief minister or not, I am a human being -- I will be sad if something bad happens anywhere.”
Modi told the Muslim group that he wanted to say ‘chinti’ (ant) but interviewers (agency's reporters) may not have understood the Hindi word, so he used “puppy”!
Since long, Modi has been meeting Muslim leaders and interacting with them privately.
A Muslim community leader based in Ahmedabad says that there is tremendous curiosity among Muslim youth to know Modi.
Modi debates Ayodhya with Deobandis in closed-door meet - Rediff.com India News
Looks like Modi is doing the right thing - If he can breakaway some of the muslims votes for BJP, then more seats will be assured and less of coalition headache.
