The Darul Uloom, Deoband, may not approve of Muslims working in banks or even having insurance policies. But the country’s minority affairs minister, Salman Khurshid, has indicated that he sees nothing wrong in either having a bank account or an insurance.
Speaking to reporters in the capital on Saturday, Mr Khurshid remarked: “I am minority affairs minister as well as a Muslim myself. I have both a bank account and insurance. We want to develop the community and hence are opening more banks in minority areas.”
To a question on the government and the party being on different pages on how to deal with the Naxal problem, Mr Khurshid replied: “The government and the party are on the same page on the issue. There are no differences of approach, only difference of words.”
On the Deoband fatwas, Mr Khurshid said that he was not going to get into any “condemnation exercise” as far as these concerned. For, he said: “My greatest condemnation of such things is through the figures (of the success of minority schemes).”
Indeed, the minority affairs minister said that such decrees from the clerics had not hampered any of his ministry’s schemes.
He added, “There is no feedback that the performance of our schemes has got affected due to any propaganda. Why should we be worried, when our programmes are not affected,” said Mr Khurshid.
Further, the minister noted that nobody has stopped the government from opening banks in minority areas and that it was receiving requests for more such banks. As Mr Khurshid pointed out, nearly 1,759 banks have been opened in the country’s minority concentration districts.