A day after the vitriolic VHP leader Pravin Togadia indulged in minority-bashing at a party meet, the BJP today accused him of making ‘‘unnecessary’’ statements on Muslims and rejected as ‘‘unacceptable’’ his criticism of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.Addressing delegations of the party’s Muslim leaders, who had gathered at his residence to protest against Togadia’s ‘‘provocative’’ speech at a BJP Minority Morcha meeting here, party general-secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: ‘‘Such provocative statements from either side are not going to serve any useful purpose in creating an atmosphere of trust and friendship between the two communities.’’Naqvi, who was also present at yesterday’s function in which Togadia had made the controversial remarks, said his opinion about Muslims could never be treated as the opinion of the majority community.‘‘The loyalty of Muslims towards the nation cannot be questioned. Putting the whole community in the dock and blaming them for a sin committed by a few is a sign of narrow and irrational thinking,’’ he said. Naqvi also took strong exception to Togadia’s criticism of Vajpayee. ‘‘It is baseless and unacceptable.’’
