CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K Selvaperunthagai on Thursday criticised the Narendra Modi-led NDA government for not providing representation to Muslims in its cabinet and for not allocating seats to the community in the parliamentary elections.
In a statement, Selvaperunthagai emphasised that the Constitution mandated no discrimination based on language or religion and yet there was no representation for Muslims in the present cabinet.
Providing details on newly elected Muslim MPs, Selvaperunthagai said only 24 Muslim members have been elected to the 18th Parliament. Among them, seven belonged to the Congress and four to the Samajwadi Party, with none from the BJP or other NDA partners.
This lack of representation is a significant challenge to the country’s secularism, he said.
Selvaperunthagai asserted that it is the responsibility of the INDIA bloc parties to protect the minorities from anti-democratic functioning of the BJP.