IndiaTomorrow.net,
Kozhikode, Sep 25: It is not often, nor even sometimes, that Narendra Modi uses M-word. As prime minister, he has not used it even once in the last three Independence Day speeches from the Red Fort. Even when he was – at public meetings in Delhi and Telangana last month – harshly condemning attack by cow vigilantes on Dalits, he did not bother to mention another community which has also been victim of – in Modi’s own word – anti-social gau rakshak mobs. And so, Kozhikode stood witness to a sort of historic incident today when our Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned Muslims in his speech at his party BJP’s national council meeting.
Paying tribute to Jan Sangh ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay on his 100th birth anniversary, Modi invoked Upadhyay to say Muslims should not be treated as a vote-bank. They should be neither appeased nor rewarded. Rather, they should be empowered.
“Don’t reward Muslims. Don’t rebuke Muslims. Empower them. Don’t think of them as vote-banks or commodities, think of them as your own,” Modi quoted Upadhyay as saying.
And then he claimed his government’s slogan Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas is on the same line. “We want the most underprivileged to be the first to progress,” said Modi.
He also talked about secularism, balanced and inclusive growth and need for electoral reforms.
Is the sudden perceptible change in PM Modi’s language reflection of change of heart? Or is it just another calculated political move? Only time will answer.
