Prime Minister Modi's outreach to pasmanda Muslims: A strategic pause?

The invention of "pasmanda Muslims plus Hindutva" also serves to confuse and destabilise an Opposition still trapped in its old political rhetoric

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to address the problems of pasmanda or backward Muslims during its national executive meeting in Hyderabad has sent political analysts scrambling. Some think this was prompted by the party's unexpected victory in Azamgarh and Rampur by-elections in Uttar Pradesh. Others suggest he has his eye on Telangana, where assembly elections are due next year, and a conciliatory signal might go down well with