NEW DELHI: Congress hosted
Iftar parties for “political engineering” while BJP does it for “social engineering” to give dignity to the minority community, Union minister Mukhtar Naqvi said on Wednesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Iftar party hosted by him and coinciding with the one held by Congress chief
Rahul Gandhi, Naqvi said he had invited nearly 300 women from the community — some of them victims of Triple Talaq — to make give them the dignity they deserve.
Naqvi also said his ministry will hold state-wise ‘Progress Panchayats’ for women to give them a platform to discuss their grievances and address their concerns.
Emphasising that though the community was in regular touch with his ministry, the iftar had also served as a platform for women to connect with him to speak about other concerns.
Naqvi said, “We talk about development and dignity, but the Congress’s Iftar is for political engineering. No one has ever tried to organise an Iftar for social engineering. We have done it, especially when we are talking about Muslim women, triple talaq and other issues related to their empowerment.”
The minister had announced an Iftar party a day after the Congress said it would host one of its own on Wednesday. Interacting with the Muslim women, the minister said that it was only the BJP government that had made it possible for them to go on Haj without male companions. “For the first time after Independence, Muslim officers would be posted in
Saudi Arabia for Haj duty. A woman officer is also being deployed to help the women who will travel alone,” Naqvi said.
NDA ministers who attended Naqvi’s programme included
Ravi Shankar Prasad,
Prakash Javadekar,
Smriti Irani, Jitendra Singh, and M J Akbar.