Not here as PM but as family member: PM Modi inaugurates academy of Dawoodi Bohra community

New Delhi, Feb 10: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new campus of the Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah (The Saifee Academy) in Mumbai's Marol on Friday evening. The prime minister took a tour of the academy. The Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah is the principal educational institute of the Dawoodi Bohra community. The Saifee Academy is working to protect the learning traditions and literacy culture of the community.

Inaugurating the fourth campus of Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah Arabic Academy, he said the country has put an end to 40,000 compliances and decriminalised hundreds of legal provisions.These laws adversely affected businesses of entrepreneurs, but the government is now standing firmly with job creators, said the PM on his second visit to Mumbai in less than a month.

''An atmosphere of unprecedented trust has been created in the last few years,'' he said.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Modi said, "I am here neither as a PM nor a CM. The fortunate things is that I have something that perhaps very few people received. I have been connected to this family for four generations. All four generations have visited my home," the ANI reported.

''On the parameters of change with time and development, Dawoodi Bohra community has always proven itself. Today, the expansion of important educational institutions like Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah is a living example of the same,'' as quoted by ANI.

The Bohra community has stood the test of transforming with the times, he said.

The PM spoke about big fillip being given to medical education by his government and said a medical college is being opened in every district.

From 2004 to 2014, when the Congress-led UPA government was in office, 145 medical colleges were started in country. But after he assumed office in 2014, more than 260 medical colleges have been set up, Modi said.

''In the last eight years, every week, one university and two colleges were opened in country,'' he maintained and highlighted his government's push to higher education.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off two Vande Bharat trains in Mumbai.

PM Modi shares a warm relationship with the community and has met with its religious leaders multiple times, both in India and abroad. The Bohra community, a small but influential business-oriented Shia Muslim community, has a long-standing presence in India and is known for its entrepreneurship and philanthropy.