Vastanvi: Muslims won’t object if Modi is elected PM

Former vice-chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband Ghulam Muhammad Vastanvi Sunday said that Muslims should not have any problem if the country elects Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.

"If our country makes him Prime Minister, there is no reason for us to have any objection (Agar apna mulk unko PM banata hai to hamari taraf se koi inkaar to ho hi nahi sakta)," Vastanvi told reporters here when asked about his views about Modi as a prime ministerial candidate.

Vastanvi was in the city to attend a mass marriage function.

When asked about his take on the plight of minorities, particularly Muslims, in Gujarat, he said, "For the past 10 years, there is BJP rule in the state. If the BJP government works for Muslims, then Muslims will support it and if it does not, then they will move away."

"As Mulayamji had opined recently, if the BJP changes the agenda, changes its ideology and adopts a secular approach towards every section of society, then I don't see why people won't support it," he said at the function which was also attended by Dariyapur's Congress MLA Gyasuddin Shaikh.

Shaikh later told PTI, "Vastanviji has not expressed his support to Modi as a section of the media projected. He merely said that if our country chooses Narendra Modi as the next Prime Minister, then there is no reason Muslims would have objection to it."

In 2011, Vastanvi was caught in the middle of a controversy when, as newly elected V-C of the Darul Uloom Deoband Seminary, his comments regarding development's positive impact on Gujarat's Muslims were interpreted in some quarters as praise for Modi.

On July 24, 2011 he was asked to step down from the post of V-C.

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