Life has become 'difficult' for minorities under Modi government: Azam Khan

RAMPUR: Muslims are being "harassed" and it has become "difficult" for minorities to lead a normal life since the Narendra Modi dispensation assumed office, senior Samajwadi Party leader and Rampur MLA Azam Khan has alleged.

Talking to reporters here last evening, the former Uttar Pradesh minister said, "Muslims are being harassed - sometimes in the name of cow (slaughter) and sometimes in the name of religion."

"Life has become difficult for minorities since the Narendra Modi-led BJP came to power," he added.

He also alleged that the BJP government was trying to "redefine" Shariat laws, in the wake of a Supreme Court verdict invalidating the Muslim practice of instant divorce - 'talaq-e-biddat'.

On the Supreme Court's judgenment holding privacy a fundamental right under the Constitution, he said, "It will foil the BJP's nefarious designs to generate a vicious atmosphere of hatred in the country."

The Samajwadi Party MLA alleged that the residents of Rampur, a Muslim-majority town, were facing "maximum atrocities" in the hands of law-enforcement agencies since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh.

"Muslim localities are being raided...Police atrocities led to the death of two residents. Many houses were looted and women harassed during these raids," he alleged.