Ranchi, Apr 2: BJP president Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said it hurts him when opponents describe the party as communal but admitted that there may have been some flaws on their part in reaching out to Muslims.
"We don't do politics on the basis of caste, language and religion. For us it is humanism and cultural nationalism," Singh said, addressing a meeting in Ranchi.
"We believe in 'Vasudevaka-kutumbakam' (Universal brotherhood). However, I admit there might have been some flaws on our part by failing to reach out to Muslims," the BJP president said.
He accused Congress of depriving educational facilities to Muslims during its several years of governance as part of a "conspiracy".
"It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had introduced Haj facilities," said Singh, trying to woo the minorities ahead of the Lok Sabha elections beginning on 7 April.
Stating that BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was the only leader in the country since Independence to have endured blistering attacks since the 2002 Gujarat riots, he said, "It was the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation that appreciated development in Gujarat in 2008. Even a committee in the US had praised Gujarat's development in 2011."
Expressing worry over internal and external security, Singh said former Home Minister P Chidambaram had said about some action plan to combat the Maoists but Congress leader Digvijaya Singh shot it down.
"We would like to know what action plans had the Central government formed during its rule to contain for external and internal securities," Singh said.
If the BJP voted to power, he said, its priority would be to check corruption through transparency and other mechanism, focus on agriculture, manufacturing and services to propel the GDP and control prices.
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