Shinde woos Muslims, starts minority wing in party

At the first meeting of the minority wing at Shanmukhananda Hall on Sunday evening, Shinde said that the Congress was painting a bad image of the Shiv Sena in the minds of the Muslim community, and the latter would only know the party when they “got closer”

MUMBAI: Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who has always emphasised his government’s belief in Hindutva philosophy, has started a minority wing for his party. Egged on by the fact that his rival, the Shiv Sena (UBT), is supposed to be getting good support from Muslims, Shinde has also thrown his hat in the ring in pursuance of Muslim votes.

The CM said he had helped a Muslim child needing medical aid in Kolhapur and the mother had named the child Dua (blessing). “My son Shrikant Shinde’s foundation has helped many Muslim families in need,” he said. “Two children who lost their parents in a house crash were given fixed deposits of ₹10 lakh each and my son put them in a boarding school at Panchgani.” (HT PHOTO)

At the first meeting of the minority wing at Shanmukhananda Hall on Sunday evening, Shinde said that the Congress was painting a bad image of the Shiv Sena in the minds of the Muslim community, and the latter would only know the party when they “got closer”. He declared that he believed in the principles of the Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji who had Muslims in his army. “I too have a house help called Adil, who is like my child, and a driver called Rafiq,” he declared. To buttress the point further, he also recited an Urdu couplet.

Shinde drew up a list of things his government had done for Muslims. “The slaughter charge of goats had been increased from ₹20 to ₹200 per animal by the MVA government but I reversed it before Bakri Eid this year,” he said. “The government also instructed the police that apart from government agencies, no one else should stop vehicles carrying goats for the festival. My government also changed the holiday for Eid this year.”

The chief minister then pointed out that just like Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray had a Muslim minister, Sabir Shaikh, in the 1990s, his government had Abdul Sattar. “The Congress is trying to create a divide but the reality was different,” he said.

The claims flew thick and fast through the meeting. Shinde said that Hindu-Muslim riots “did happen” but claimed that his men protected masjids. “It was Bal Thackeray who told me to respect all religions,” he said.

The CM talked about how Indira Nagar in Thane did not have a burial ground despite many promises made by many political parties during elections. “As a leader of the house in Thane, I captured a plot of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, cleared it off and asked Muslims to bury bodies there,” he declared. “I had to face a police case for this but this is my way of functioning.”

Shinde said the government would call a meeting to solve the problems of the Muslim community. “Whatever can be done easily will be done and wherever a policy change is needed, rules will be changed,” he said. “Vacancies in the Wakf Board will be filled. But we will not tolerate support for Pakistan.”

The CM said he had helped a Muslim child needing medical aid in Kolhapur and the mother had named the child Dua (blessing). “My son Shrikant Shinde’s foundation has helped many Muslim families in need,” he said. “Two children who lost their parents in a house crash were given fixed deposits of ₹10 lakh each and my son put them in a boarding school at Panchgani.”

The Muslim community made several demands like reservation in education, appointment of an IAS officer knowing Urdu on the Wakf board, setting up of the Fatima Awas Yojana like the Ramai Awas Yojana, reservation for Muslims in MHADA flats, setting up of cooperatives for Muslims by amending acts and granting of government works for such societies, removal of encroachments from Wakf land and giving full powers to the Wakf board, a grant of ₹100,000 for poor Muslim girls on the lines of the Shaadi Mubarak Yojana started by the Telangana government, and a grant of ₹1000 crore for the Maulana Azad Financial Development Corporation besides waiver of loans.

Shiv Sena MLC Manisha Kayande said that the Shinde government had given huge aid to minorities and added that it wanted to bring Muslims into the mainstream. Shiv Sena MLA from Byculla, Yamini Jadhav, said that 45 percent of her voters were Muslims. She too read out an Urdu couplet and won huge applause. “Urdu is a language that has a rich culture, and we do not hate it,” she said.

One of the attendees, Awesh Pathan from Thane, said that Shinde always won with a huge margin from Thane. Riyad Mohammed, a resident of Thane, said that the Shrikant Shinde foundation had helped his neighbour, who was also a Muslim, a lot when he had to undergo surgery.