Advani woos muslim voters, promises welfare, security

NEW DELHI, July 14 (Agencies): In an effort to project himself and the party as secular, BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani has said that if voted to power in the next general elections, the concerns of the muslims of the country would be addressed in an adequate way, irrespective of the muslim votes party gets.

But, at the same time Advani reiterated that his party was against "politics of minorityism" and this is what has always put the muslims at a distance.

Addressing a muslim women's conference on Sunday, Advani said, "Irrespective of what percentage of Muslims vote for the BJP and NDA, our government, if voted into office by the people of India, will work for the welfare, development and security of the Muslims." Asserting that the politics of minorityism must be defeated, he alleged that some parties in India want Muslims to remain forever in the minority mindset.

Appealing to muslim community that it should not fall prey to the politics of minorityism, Advani claimed that the BJP was more interested in their welfare, and security than votes.

He said that it is the "other parties", which have painted BJP in communal colours.

He also stressed that his party did not believe in any kind of discrimination on the basis of religion.

Religious diversity of India has been a proud tradition of the country, Advani said.

But, he also took on "a section of muslim leadership", which, for its vested interests, believed in and misled the whole community by pursuing the two-nation theory, the ghost of which is still troubling India.

Advani made all the possible efforts to convince his own party workers among muslim women to believe in the secular credentials of both his own and his party.

But, it would be interesting to see as to what impact or result Advani could extract during the 2009-grand finale given the fact that his own meteoric rise in politics came to fore only after communal politics of Ayodhya and in the aftermath of it.