- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, the leader of India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, on Friday (10) inaugurated a new campus of an educational institute of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims in Mumbai, the capital of the western state of Maharashtra, in a bid to reach out to one of the city’s most influential communities ahead of the upcoming municipal elections.
At the inauguration ceremony, Modi was seen holding hands with Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the head of the community, at the campus in Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah (The Saifee Academy), the principal educational institute of the Dawoodi Bohra community at Marol in suburban Andheri in Mumbai. Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who belongs to the BJP, was also present.
He said during the visit that he was there as a family member and not a prime minister.
“I have known four generations of Syedna sahab’s family. I am here as a family member, not a PM. You have fulfilled a 150-year-old dream by setting up this institute,” Modi said.
The institute works towards protecting the community’s learning traditions and literary culture. The new centre is also set to impart learning in Arabic.
The event was part of Modi’s second visit to India’s ‘Maximum City’ in less than a month, which also saw him unveiling a number of infrastructure projects and flagging off two elite Vande Bharat trains. The prime minister inaugurated and laid foundation stones for projects worth Rs 38,000 crore (£3.8 billion) during his visit to Mumbai on January 19.
