New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not going to say sorry for his ‘Muslims first’ statement though the BJP might cry Muslim appeasement.
"The Prime Minister will never, never make any apology within or outside Parliament," Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi said on Monday.
Speaking at a meeting of the National Development Council on Saturday, Singh had said: “We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources.”
"It is mischievous on the part of the BJP to have presented a distorted version of the PM's statement, and propagated the half-truth," Congress spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi said at press conference. The distortion proved the BJP's “anti-Muslim and sick mind set.”
''What the Prime Minister had stated was consistent with the Congress' stand, but only a portion of it was presented by the BJP out of context,'' Chaturvedi said.
The Prime Minister's statement included the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, backward classes, women, children and all the underprivileged in its ambit and the word minorities did not include merely Muslims.
''If the Prime Minister had stated that the welfare of the backward among the Muslims should be taken care of, what was wrong in that,'' said Chaturvedi, adding the BJP had played a ''fraud'' by 'misrepresenting' the facts.
The PM’s media adviser, Sanjay Baru, has said that Singh was “not just talking about the Muslims” but the BJP has found this a good opportunity to cry ‘minority appeasement’.
The party on Monday said it would protest in Parliament against Singh until he apologised to the nation as ''mere clarifications'' would not do.
''Mere clarifications cannot explain away the PM's statement as his address was in 'black and white'. He had said that the minorities, particularly the Muslims, must have first claim on resources,'' said senior BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani.
''Is this not rank communal appeasement?'' he queried. Terming the statement a ''violation of the spirit of the Constitution,'' he said that it has ''shocked'' millions in the country and demanded that it be withdrawn.
BJP Parliamentary Party Spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that a "mere clarification" was not enough and the Prime Minister should "tender apologies to the nation."
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has also defended the Prime Minister, saying it was "unfortunate" that his suggestion was not being viewed in the proper context.
(With inputs from agencies)
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