Nasir Abbas Bismillah, the grandson of Bharat Ratna Bismillah Khan, has said that the family was brainwashed by the Congress party in 2014 when they refused an invitation from the then Lok Sabha candidate from Varanasi to become a proposer in his nomination form.
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To correct that wrong, Nasir has written a letter to Narendra Modi asking to join his nomination process in the current Lok Sabha elections. Nasir writes in the letter that the prime minister is going to contest the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi and he would like to be present when Modi submits his nomination papers. He says it will be a memorable moment for him, as well a message of goodwill.
Talking to media, Nasir said the family regrets that they refused the invitation to become a proposer of Modi during 2014 elections. He said, Modi jee sent a letter to our family offering to be a proposer in nomination, our family had agreed to that, but people from other party brainwashed them. Instead of saying their own version, they presented the version of that party saying we are Congress supporters and we don’t belong to BJP. Congress leaders asked that the family to mention that Bishmillah Khan was also a Congress supporter, and hence the family is refusing the offer of Narendra Modi.
Nasir said, ‘yes I agree that my grandfather supported Congress, because the party had ruled for a long time at that time. After that BJP has also ruled for a considerable period of time, and BJP govt awarded the Bharat Ratna to my grandfather’.
When asked which Congress leader had asked the family to refuse the offer of Modi, he refused to divulge the name, but said that the leader is very close to his family since his childhood.
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The grandson of shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan said that now the entire family regrets that they rejected the offer of Narendra Modi in 2014 which was a big mistake, and now the entire family wants to be with the Prime Minister during the nomination process.
Before 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Modi had requested Bismillah Khan’s son Ustad Zamin Khan to be a proposer on his nomination papers from Varanasi, along with the grandson of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. The family had rejected the offer, saying that do not want to be associated with any political party. They had replied that “cannot be Modiji’s proposer as neither Bismillah was involved with any political party nor do we wish to. Bismillah used to say that you can talk to me for hours about music but keep me away from politics.”
But now Nasir says that the family was tutored by Congress leader to give such a reply, adding that it is a lie that his grandfather was not associated with politics. He says that his family is associated with music, and they don’t have much knowledge about politics. Therefore, when Congress party leaders asked them to refuse the proposal of Modi, they agreed with do the same without any thought. He said that they have great remorse that they refused a great honour that was being given to the family.
PM Narendra Modi is set to submit his nomination at Varanasi on 26th April. The voting for the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency will take place on May 19th, the last phase of elections.