Not even token ‘sabka saath’: No Muslim in Modi’s Cabinet

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: For the first time in the country, a Union Cabinet has been inducted and portfolios handed without a single Muslim among the names. The previous Cabinet under PM Modi also did not have anyone from the 20 crore-strong community in it.

This has been the case since 2022 when Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi lost his seat in the Rajya Sabha. Naqvi had served as the Union Minority Affairs Minister. In 2014, Rajya Sabha MP Najma Heptullah had landed the Minority Affairs portfolio.

When Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM, he had inducted two Muslim ministers into his Cabinet namely Shahnawaz Hussain and Omar Abdullah.

The Congressled United Progressive Alliance on the other hand had inducted five Muslim ministers into their Cabinet in 2004 and 2009.

Modi had drawn flak for anti-Muslim speeches in his poll campaign, claiming that the Congress would hand the resources of Hindus to the minority community.

Notably, there are two Sikhs, two Christians and a Buddhist, besides 10 Dalits and 27 Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the PM’s Cabinet.

Zero BJP MPs, MLAs from community

Among the 240 Lok Sabha MPs from the BJP, there is not a single Muslim nor is the community present among party MLAs. What’s more is that the saffron party didn’t field a single Muslim among its 441 candidates.