In a meeting with 12 Muslim intellectuals in New Delhi on Wednesday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi was advised not to talk about the Muslim community in particular and rather speak on issues like poverty and education on a whole.
"In the meeting, we advised Rahul Gandhi to not talk about the Muslim community in particular as it will give others an opportunity to polarise him as a leader. Gandhi should rather talk about poverty and education. If he does so, it will affect 96 per cent Muslims like other Indians," historian S. Irfan Habib told reporters.
During the meeting, Gandhi was also advised to do self-introspection of the Congress party. Gandhi was urged to think about how "Congress worked in the era of 1970s, when it talked about inclusiveness and sajha virasat," Habib said.
Besides Habib, the meeting was also attended by senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, writer Rakhshanda Jalil, industrialist Junaid Rehman, Nadeem Javed (chairman,Congress minority department), writer Farah Naqvi and intellectual Iliash Malik among others.
"A number of lawyers, historians and university intellectuals met Rahul Gandhi and discussed public policy with him. They gave their feedback to the leader of opposition on the areas they are working in. Hope more such interactions will take place in future," Khurshid said after the meeting.
However, nothing regarding the upcoming elections and personal law board for Muslim community among other political issues were discussed in the meeting, said Malik.
"We didn't talk about the personal law board as the matter is currently in court. We didn't come here to resolve an issue. Rahul Gandhi heard nicely whatever we advised him. There are few problems of the minority community, which are especially about Muslims. So, it was our responsibility to meet political parties and tell them our problems. Since Congress is the biggest opposition party, that's why we met Rahul Gandhi as he is the president of the party," he said.