The country’s first all-women party, the Bharatiya Awam Party, that is headed by a Muslim woman, is all set to support the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the upcoming lok Sabha elections.
President of the Bharatiya Awam Party (BAP) Najma Parveen says they are confident that Modi will be effective as the Prime Minister and will work for the betterment of all sections of society, including women.
Najma comes from a family of weavers and has done her Masters in Conflict Management from the BHU. She says the prime aim of forming the party was to get more women involved in the political process.
“If we look at the social parameters, women are trapped everywhere. They are treated as vote banks and at home they are even told who they have to vote for. This party, which is India’s first all-women party aims to increase participation of women in politics,” said Najma.
However, the party is all inclusive and has a ten per cent quota for men. But it has no intentions of entering the political arena this time round.
Incidentally, the party considers Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as its idol and was set up on January 23, 2013 to coincide with the birthday of Netaji and registered on January 9, 2014. They already have 35,000 members, out of which more than 2,500 are men.
“We are supporting Modi because we have high hopes from him. We are sure that he will do something for the country. He is going to work for the uplift of all sections of society, including women” Najma said.
On being asked how a well-informed Muslim woman like her could ignore the allegations Modi has faced in connection with the 2002
Gujarat riots, Najma said she never thought in terms of belonging to any particular religion or caste.
“I have always believed that there is a national religion and that we should end the conflict between Muslims and Hindus. And as far as allegations are concerned,
all political leaders are accused of
something or the other. Take the example of the recent riots in Muzaffarnagar wherein allegations have been made against the Samajwadi Party,” Najma said.
On being asked about the political plans of the party, she said they still had to decide on the issue. “We have not decided when we would like to enter the political arena and whether we will fight the lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha elections next time. We are yet to decide our strategy,” said Najma.
Najma said she had done her Masters in Conflict Management in order to be able to tone down the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. “Through my course I have understood that ending conflicts is a difficult task but managing the conflict between Muslims and Hindus is crucial,” Najma said and added, “But right now the focus for us is only Narendra Modi.”