'Muslims know they cannot defeat the BJP, why then come in its firing range?' 'And they know, ultimately it is the BJP MLA who is going to get elected and only he or she can do their work.' 'The BJP may do a different kind of politics for Muslims, but when they sit in the chair they work for Muslims too.'
'They contest to ensure they win the election.'
Dr Hanif Lakdawala, founder of Sanchetna, the non-governmental organisation that works among urban slum-dwellers, minorities and women on various issues, including health, lives in Ahmedabad
'They are happy for the Hindu community as Ram Lalla is consecrated in Ayodhya.'
State Congress president Jagdish Thakor urged Muslim leaders, including Pirzada, to frame a time-bound programme targeting 60 assembly seats with sizable Muslim population.
"We condemn the Ahmedabad bomb blasts. Gujarati Muslims want peace. We are a business-oriented people and we believe that peace must be maintained. Muslims of Gujarat are not at all involved in any terrorist activities," said Saeed Umarjee, son of Hussein Umarjee prime accused in the Godhra carnage of 2002, in which 59 people were killed. Since 2003, Hussein Umerjee is in Sabarmati jail with 85 other accused.
"Pakistan Foreign Minister is a political pygmy in a powerless government kowtowing to the terror organisations. These pusillanimous comments reflect Pakistan's frustration with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's successful diplomacy in exposing the terror face of Pakistan to the world," said BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday threw a challenge to Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, saying he was ready for a debate on Article 370 "anytime, anywhere".
'Is Rahul turning the Congress' covert soft-Hindutva support into overt support now?' 'And if so, following in the BJP's footsteps, is the Congress going to abandon Indian Muslims and Muslim causes altogether?' asks Dr Najid Hussain whose father-in-law former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the Gujarat riots.
'My confidence in the Indian judiciary is absolute after I saw justice being delivered in Gujarat even when a BJP government was ruling the state. The Muslims of Gujarat believed that they will never get justice in a BJP-ruled state, but the facts are before all of us to make a judgment.'
If Narendra Modi wants to become prime minister, he needs to do better, argues Amberish K Diwanji.
'Islam says the person who has been hurt has the right to pardon the accused. So don't ask me on whether I will pardon Narendra Modi or not. Go and ask this question to Gujarati Muslims who have been hurt.' 'Secular and non-secular is not an issue for Muslims. The day Muslims become strong, the non-secular guys will become secular. And if Muslims are weak, the same secular guys will cut the throats of Muslims.' 'The secular character of India can never be finished. India is secular by its nature. Whoever comes to power, he will have to become secular to rule,' Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad Naqvi tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
'No one talks about the Mumbai riots anymore, though like Delhi 1984, the guilty have not been punished. In Gujarat, many powerful leaders of the state's ruling party are in jail for their role in the riots... In Mumbai, only one politician of the Shiv Sena, a former MP, was convicted of hate speech, along with two other Shiv Sainiks, one of whom was a corporator and the other a junior functionary... So why the apathy? Could it be because despite these statistics and the widely-publicised findings of the Srikrishna Commission, what remained in public consciousness was the violence by the Muslims, thanks to a highly efficient Sena propaganda machine? There's no demand for it, but would an SIT probe into the closed cases of the Mumbai riots help today?' The fadeout of Mumbai's riots from public debate can be called a triumph of the communal State, argues Jyoti Punwani.
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