Would like to see PM Narendra Modi’s words being backed up by action: Arshad Madani

NEW DELHI: PM Modi’s recent statements on patriotism of Indian Muslims should have acted as a salve in the complicated relationship between the ruling party and the country’s largest minority community, but a top Muslim leader said the government needs to walk the talk.

“We are willing to accept that the PM means what he says, we can take him at face value, but we would like to see these good words being backed up by action,” said Arshad Madani, senior professor at the Darul-uloom at Deoband, which is the second largest Islamic seminary in the world, and president of the Jamaat-e-Ulema e Hind.

"There are thousands of innocent young Muslim boys in jails across the country on trumped up terror charges,” he told ET in a freewheeling conversation. “If the PM really believes that Indian Muslims will give their lives for the country, he needs to make an effort to review their cases and let off those found to be held without any basis.”

Madani, while taking the remarks on board, however, cautioned against the minority affairs ministry’s moves to launch a madrasa modernisation scheme.

“We have nothing against modernisation, but madrasas are for the teaching of the 1,400-year-old Koran, the Sharia and the Hadith. What is the government going to do by getting into this?” he asked.