‘We have no choice but to trust Modi’
Wednesday, 21/05/2014
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: The chairman of London-based Indian Muslim Federation (IMF) — an organisation formed after the 1969 riots in Ahmedabad — on Monday said that Muslims were surprised at the landslide electoral victory in favour of Narendra Modi, but felt that the ‘vulnerable’ community had no alternative but to trust him.
Shamsuddin Agha, who heads t he IMF comprising mostly Gujarati Muslims told HT that the results had an “element of shock”, but the people’s verdict needed to be respected. “We have no alternative but to trust Modi and the BJP for the next five years. He has made sober-sounding statements, so let’s see”, Agha said.
Noting BJP leade r Uma Bharati’s reported statement that 95 per cent Muslims lived in poverty, Agha said he preferred to see it as an acknowledgement of the problems and identified illiteracy and poverty as the most important issues Modi needed to tackle.
Earlier, Mohammad Sabat, chairman of the Leicester-based Indian Muslim Association, said that the prospect of Modi as PM was “very welcome”.
