Salman Khurshid downplays Centre's 'politically motivated' minority outreach programme

Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday sought to downplay the Centre's minority outreach programme which includes a scholarship to minorities and modernisation of Ismalic seminaries, terming the move as "politically motivated".

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi in one of his speeches indicated that this is being done to somehow persuade minorities not to worry about the government and that the previous government (UPA rule) created a wrong impression about the BJP. If that is the purpose behind giving the scholarship, then it is clearly politically motivated," Khurshid told ANI. He slammed the ruling party for questioning the previous UPA government when it launched many schemes in the welfare of Muslims on the Sachchar Committee's recommendations.

The Congress leader sought to downplay the announcement and maintained that every government is elected to work for citizens with equal priority. He said, "Every government has a responsibility to treat every citizen equally. When we Sachchar Committee report, it was called appeasement. Now that BJP government is doing the same (launching programmes for Muslims), what shall it be called."

The Centre recently announced to provide scholarship to five crore students belonging to the minority community in the next five years and modernisation of madrasas in its quest to reach out to the minority community especially to Muslims. The announcement to modernise of madrasas is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan that he laid out in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

"Hold Quran in one hand and computer in other," Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said.

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