Congress President met with a group of Muslim intellectuals on Wednesday, who advised him to not talk about the community, but rather speak on issues such as poverty and education on the whole.
According to an Indian Express report, the intellectuals also asked him about his temple visits during the two-hour-long interaction. The Congress chief is learnt to have told them that he had also visited mosques and churches but his temple trips have caught the attention of the media. He told them that the media has not reported about his visits to mosques and churches.
Among those who attended it were historian Syed Irfan Habib, noted scholar and academic Abusaleh Shariff, writer and activist Farah Naqvi, writer Rakhshanda Jalil, former IAS officer M F Farooqui, the Raja of Mahmoodabad Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan besides senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid and AICC minority department head Nadeem Javed.
“Today in the meeting, we advised Rahul Gandhi to not talk about the Muslim community in particular as it will give others an opportunity to polarise him as a leader. He should rather talk about poverty and education. If he does so it will affect 96 percent Muslims like other Indians,” historian S Irfan Habib told ANI.
During the meeting, Rahul Gandhi was also advised to do a self introspection of the Congress party. He was urged to think about how ‘Congress worked in the era of 1970s, when it talked about inclusiveness and ‘Sajha virasat’, Habib said.
“A number of lawyers, historians and university intellectuals today met Rahul Gandhi and discussed public policy with him. They gave their feedback to the leader of Opposition on the areas they are working in. Hope more such interactions will take place in future,” Salman Khurshid said after the meeting.
However, nothing regarding to upcoming elections and personal law board for Muslim community among other political issues were discussed in the meeting, said Iliash Malik.
“We didn’t talk about the personal law board as the matter is currently in court. We didn’t come here to resolve an issue. Rahul Gandhi heard nicely whatever we advised to him. There are few problems of the minority community, which are especially about Muslims. So, it was our responsibility to meet political parties and tell them our problems. Since Congress is the biggest opposition party, that’s why we met Rahul Gandhi as he is the President of the party,” he added.
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