New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday termed Congress President Rahul Gandhi's Iftar party "political engineering" while saying the one he hosted was only a social event.
Naqvi was speaking at an Iftar party which he especially hosted for women from different sections like social activists, divorcees and common housewives. Over 150 women attended the party he organised at his residence.
His remarks came hours after Gandhi's iftar party in which he had invited fomer Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil along with former Vice President Hamid Ansari and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh among the dignitaries from opposition parties including rebel Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav, Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Janata Dal-Secular leader Danish Ali, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi and Bahujan Samaj Party's Satish Chandra Mishra.
"It's not a political Iftar. Their iftar is political engeeniring while ours is a social event with a social message. This I party has nothing to do with politics. Usually people host Iftar for VIPs but I have hosted it for women from all strata," Naqvi said.
"These women are VIPs for us. In such Iftar parties, men are specially invited but this is women centric Iftar party," he added.
Naqvi also gifted a pair of salwar kameez as the Eid gift to each woman.
Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harshvardhan, M.J. Akbar, Smriti Irani, Prakash Javdekar and Jitendra Singh attended the event along with Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain.
--IANS
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