BJP chief Rajnath Singh offers apology to Muslims for past mistakes

New Delhi: Asking Muslims to give BJP a chance "at least once", its President Rajnath Singh on Tuesday ade a bid to woo the community ahead of the Lok Sabha polls by saying the party is willing to apologise for any "mistake", an apparent reference to Gujarat riots."Please note that whenever, wherever if there has been any mistake and shortcoming on our part, I assure you that we will apologise to you by bowing our heads," he said while addressing a gathering of Muslims here.He did not make specific mention to any "mistake" but was apparently referring to Gujarat riots in which Modi is tainted.Singh, who talked about the Gujarat riots and allegations against Narendra Modi during his address, insisted that BJP was not against Muslims and the community should not fall prey to the propaganda against the party and the Gujarat Chief Minister.Asking Muslims to vote for BJP this time for the sake of the nation, he said the community should help it form a government which would make India strong and ensure respect for humanity without allowing any kind of hatred."Try us once. If we don't come up to your expectations, don't look at us ever again," he said at the event "Modi for PM - Mission 272+ - role of Muslims" here."Unko dekha baar baar, kamse kam humko dekho ek baar (You have seen them so many times, atleast try us once)," he said. Talking about the 2002 Gujarat riots, Rajnath Singh said Congress engineered such a propaganda as if Modi had ordered the massacre of all Muslims at that time and is now not even ready to accept the clean chit given to him by the courts."Congress is playing vote bank politics to defame Modi and BJP... Try and understand this, they want Muslims to move away from BJP," he said."Now, the court has also given him a clean chit, what else is left against him," the BJP chief said.His colleague Arun Jaitley also sought to woo the Muslims, saying BJP does not treat minorities as "instruments of political power" but treated them as equals."An organised campaign has gone on for several years to create a fear factor amongst the minorities about the BJP," he said, adding the party has "no prejudice" against them and appealed them to shun vote bank politics.He said Muslims should support BJP to help make India a "riot-free country where all citizens including minorities are guaranteed security and treated as co-equals with no discrimination".The BJP chief said the Indian Constitution does not provide for reservation on religious lines. "Anyone who is poor should be given reservation, be it Muslims, Christians ..., and not on religious basis. Why divide people on the basis of religion. There should be equality."The party plans to convene at least one thousand such conferences to woo the Muslims and allay their "misconceptions".Attacking Congress, Rajnath Singh said its policy has been of divide and rule.The BJP Chief also attacked the Congress for accepting the division of the nation on religious lines which Muslim leaders like Maulana Azad never accepted, saying it was "communal".He accused Congress of indulging in riots and cited Rajiv Gandhi's reported words after Indira Gandhi's assassination -- "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes".For BJP, the party chief said, the country's Constitution is its religion and Hindutva is nothing but a way of life in which the world is a family and it "loves" Muslims.Singh said Modi has defined secularism as "India first" and called for doing politics of justice and humanity.He questioned the Congress for trying to project itself as a "messiah" of the minority community and asked what it had done for them since Independence.Claiming that members of the minority community have been siding with BJP, he said hundreds of Muslims have won on BJP symbol in civic bodies in Gujarat where Muslims have got the highest per capita income in the country. This, he said, has been achieved during the 10-year rule of Modi.Asking the community not to fall prey to Congress "propaganda of falsehood" that if BJP comes to power there will be riots, Singh cited the example of party ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Goa, where there has been no communal violence.Jaitley said people earlier used to say that it is a party which will get isolated. But now there is panic among other parties after seeing the success of Modi's rallies, as there has never been such a situation before polls where BJP has managed such a stronghold.He said Modi has risen and the crowds are coming together with a message.