Not just today, Muslims feeling alienated since 1947: Heptulla

Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla has rejected the contention that Muslims are feeling insecure under the BJP-led regime and said the community has felt alienated since Independence because of the policies of successive Congress governments.

"Muslims are alienated because they are economically and educationally backward. Now people are saying these utterances (against Muslims) are making them feel alienated.

"It is not that today Muslims are feeling alienated. Muslims have been feeling alienated since <g data-gr-id="18" style="color: #3b3b3b; font-size: 11px;">Independence,</g> because they have been relegated to such backward situation," Heptulla told a news agency. She was responding to a query whether objectionable comments and hate speeches by <g data-gr-id="24" style="color: #3b3b3b; font-size: 11px;">right wing</g> elements were alienating the community under the Modi government.

"They were alienated already, relegated into <g data-gr-id="21">backward</g> <g data-gr-id="22">situation,</g> because they were educationally and economically alienated and social alienation is linked to it. This is the genesis of the whole situation. You just don't feel alienated that somebody made a statement," she asserted.