Not a single innocent Muslim arrested on false charges last year: Naqvi
Union minister of state for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said not a single innocent Muslim or member of any other minority community was arrested in the past one year in the name of terrorism or anti-national activities in the entire country.
Union minister of state for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said not a single innocent Muslim or member of any other minority community was arrested in the past one year in the name of terrorism or anti-national activities in the entire country.
"The Narendra Modi government at the Centre worked to ensure release of those implicated under false charges or overstaying in jails," Naqvi said, while addressing a gathering of Muslims at Hotel Jehan Numa on Sunday.
The comments of the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader come only days before the Modi-led NDA government complete 365 days in power.
"When our government came, we got a list of those people who were overstaying in jails. We got them released through courts and also those who were innocents. But we didn't beat drums to tell people what we did," said Naqvi.
Slamming the Congress for backwardness of Muslims, he said: "The Muslims need a respectable life like officers (Saheb). Why we should like to see them in the job of carpenters and weavers only?" he asked.
Naqvi said Modi government at the Centre was a guarantee to social, religious and economic rights to the minorities.
LOOT LOBBY
Naqvi said the Central government had enough money for the minorities, but middlemen pocketed the money sent from Delhi.
He said there was a "loot lobby" in Delhi, which did not believe in any religion. "There are fixed faces, who continued to pocket money meant for progress of the minorities. But the Central government has made efforts to rein in these elements."
Earlier, while talking to reporters, the MoS refused to comment on his controversial statement that "those who couldn't live without eating beef should go to Pakistan."