MUMBAI: The non-inclusion of a Muslim in the latest expansion of cabinet by CM
Devendra Fadnavis has come under flak from community leaders, who felt despite PM Modi’s ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas and vishwas’ slogan the promise of an inclusive agenda remains unfulfilled.
“Like his earlier slogans, the new slogan where the PM added vishwas (trust) to sabka saath and sabka vikas is empty. He wants sabka saath but there is no inclusive vikas or growth. Leaving out Muslims from the new cabinet is the latest example,” said deputy opposition leader Arif Naseem Khan.
BJP had fielded just one Muslim (
Pasha Patel
) in the 2014 assembly elections in the state but he lost. There are a few more Muslims in the party like BJP city vice-president and chairman of Maulana Azad Minorities Development Corporation chairman Hyder Azam who could have been considered for a minister’s post, many said.
Senior cleric Maulana Mahmood Daryabadi of All India Ulema Council said BJP is not serious in winning the community’s trust. “This is perhaps the first time in
Maharashtra that no Muslim is a minister. Even the Shiv Sena in the 1990s had made a Muslim (
Sabir Shaikh) a minister,” said Daryabadi.