Bharatiya Janata Party’s Uttar Pradesh unit president Swatantra Dev Singh met clerics to apprise them of the intricacies of National Register of Citizens and Citizen (Amendment) Act and asked them to urge Muslims to maintain peace.
“The NRC and the CAA are not against any particular community. They do not talk about taking away citizenship of any individual, including Muslims,” Singh told the clerics in Lucknow on Friday.
The BJP leader said that dissent was the core of democracy but it should be peaceful.
“Some innocent youth have been swayed by canards of people with vested interests. This has led to violence across the state,” he said.
“If some people have reservation on this issue, they should discuss it peacefully. The issues can be resolved through dialogue. Violence has no place in democracy,” Singh said.
The BJP state chief said that in the last 60 years, political parties had used Muslims only as a vote bank.
“The Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath governments have never used Muslims as political pawns and have always worked for their uplift. The BJP governments at the Centre and in UP are working on the principle of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ which has helped in bringing even the deprived sections of the minority community into the mainstream of society,” Singh said.
The BJP leader appealed to Muslim clerics to dispel misinformation among the community.
Muslim cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad said that the CAA and the NRC had nothing to do with Muslims and if anyone had any doubt, he should get it cleared.
“Political parties are set to gain from this confusion,” he said.
Among the clerics who met Singh were Maulana Raza Hussain, Maulana Moinuddin Ashraf, Maulana Shabahat Hussain, Maulana Jalaluddin, Maulana Hasnain Bakai and Maulana Ashi Shah Malang.