Agencies/New Delhi
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, leading the race to be India’s next prime minister, yesterday sought to blunt criticism that he is hostile to Muslims, the country’s biggest minority group.
Modi, candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was asked by a television interviewer to explain his refusal to wear a skullcap offered to him by a Muslim cleric in Gujarat three years ago.
“I live by my tradition which is why I would not like to wear a skullcap and pose for a photograph just to deceive people,” Modi said, according to a transcript provided by the television station.
Hindus have no prescribed headgear, but the wearing of skullcaps is firmly within the Muslim tradition.
Hindu-Muslim relations have been a key issue in the general election, with critics accusing Modi of not doing enough to protect Muslims in a spasm of religious violence in Gujarat in 2002 that left at least 1,000 dead.
Critics say the Hindu nationalists harbour a deep-seated bias against the Muslims and that Modi’s rise as the potential leader of a country as diverse as India is a threat to its secular foundations.
Modi, who is a three-time chief minister of Gujarat and a veteran member of the right-wing Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, denies that he or his party has any religious bias.
He talked about progress for Muslims, who are seen as lagging behind the Hindu majority in government jobs and in the broader economy.
“I believe that while those with skullcaps on their heads hold the Qur’an in one hand, they should also have a computer in the other hand,” Modi said in the interview.
Modi’s BJP hopes to oust the ruling Congress Party with its promises of jobs and new infrastructure.
On Friday Modi’s closest aide, Amit Shah, was banned from election rallies and meetings after a series of speeches deemed to have stoked tensions with Muslims.
Shah is also awaiting trial over extra-judicial killings during the 2002 Gujarat riots when he was serving under Modi in the state government.
Meanwhile, Modi took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying he has lived the life of a poor and knows what poverty was, but for some people, it has become fashionable to talk about the poor and poverty.
“Like a child appearing in an exam chants the name of God, the Congress starts chanting names of the poor when elections come. It has become quite fashionable for them,” Modi said at an election rally at Saladiya, a tribal area in Rajasthan’s Banswara district.
The BJP leader said poverty has become like a “tourist destination” for some people.
“They take along with them a couple of photographers, get themselves clicked with a child from a poor family and claim that they are working towards the welfare of the poor.
“However, how can shehzada claim to know what poverty is? To pass time, people talk about cinema and cricket, for shehzada, talking about poverty is the favourite pastime,” said Modi, referring to Gandhi.
“I know what poverty is. I sold tea to people on trains and slept hungry at night. I know what poverty really is because I have lived it.”
The Gujarat chief minister said the results of the Lok Sabha election are already known to the people.
“The existing government will lose. Even black magic cannot save them because it has been 60 years since independence, but Congress has done nothing for the tribals. It was (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee who set up a separate ministry for tribal people,” he said.
A shopkeeper arranges publicity materials such as stickers, T-shirts, mugs and masks of Narendra Modi at an exclusive showroom in Bangalore yesterday.
