Will give progress not skull caps to Muslims: BJP

Senior BJP leader CP Thakur on Sunday said the party wants to win the hearts of Muslims through development in the party-ruled states, and does not want to "mislead them by providing skull caps."

Senior BJP leader CP Thakur on Sunday said the party wants to win the hearts of Muslims through development in the party-ruled states, and does not want to "mislead them by providing skull caps."

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"The BJP neither intends to mislead Muslims by providing skull caps for them in the party-ruled states nor wants to advertise their photographs with the minority people in the newspapers.... all the BJP wants is carry out development and welfare works for the minorities and win their hearts in the process," Thakur, BJP national vice-president said at the meeting of the party's minority front in Patna.

The Muslims are as much patriots as the people of any other section of our country and they should not be looked with suspicion, he said.

Thakur's skull cap remarks assumes significance in the backdrop of the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's dig at his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi earlier this year that one will have to wear skull cap or apply 'tika' forehead to become a national leader.

Modi had reportedly refused to wear a skull cap that a Muslim cleric had offered at a function in Gujarat last year.