BJP plans outreach programme for Pasmanda Muslim leaders in Delhi today
India Today
The Delhi BJP unit has planned an outreach programme for Pasmanda Muslims in Delhi on Friday following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's earlier demand to reach out to minority communities.
Mahaz Atif Rasheed, the Delhi BJP minority in-charge and the national president of the Rashtrawadi Muslim Pasmanda, said an outreach programme for Pasmanda Muslims will be held in the national capital today (August 5). The programme will be held at Delhi’s Ghalib Institute.
This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged party workers to reach out to minority communities, such as the Pasmanda Muslims during the BJP national executive meeting in Hyderabad.
According to Rasheed, the programme will host leaders of the community from 10 different states. He said Pasmanda Muslims constitute more than 80 per cent of the Muslim community in the country but they belong to the economically weaker sections of society.
“With this programme, the BJP wants to give them a mainstream position in the coming days,” said Rasheed. The program will discuss in detail the hurdles and challenges for the community.
Danish Azad Ansari, who is a Pasmanda Muslim and the sole Muslim minister in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet, will also be present at the event today.
The word Pasmanda is derived from Persian and it means "left behind". According to the leaders of the Pasmanda Muslims, the community constitutes 85 per cent of the total Muslims in the country.
Even as they are in the majority, the Pasmanda Muslims community is socially and economically backward. The community includes Dalit (Arzals) and backward Muslim (Ajlafs) population. The rest, 15 per cent Muslims are considered upper class or Ashrafs.
