Lot needs to be done to win over Muslims, says Naqvi

New Delhi, June 17

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said the Narendra Modi government would have to do a lot more to gain the confidence of Muslims “whose minds have been poisoned over the past 70 years”.

Naqvi also said the BJP government would remind Muslims of the schemes the government started for their development and the efforts it made against ‘triple talaq’ during the campaigning for the 2019 General Election.

The minister had recently hosted an iftar party for Muslim women. A few victims of ‘triple talaq’ had also attended it.

“We have to do a lot more to gain the confidence of Muslims because their minds have been poisoned over the past 70 years. But, the good thing is that the new generation, the women are evaluating the BJP on its merits and demerits. This is a very positive development,” Naqvi said.

On the BJP’s defeat in the recent Kairana by-election, the minority affairs minister said it had not affected the party’s “winning spree”, but had certainly prompted it to have a relook at its strategy for the Lok Sabha elections.

“It does not mean that we will lose all the elections. Now that we know that the opposition parties will stitch an alliance to contest the Lok Sabha polls, we will prepare a strategy to counter them,” Naqvi said. — PTI