"Every government has a responsibility to treat every citizen equally," Salman Khurshid said. (File)

Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday said that the centre's new outreach to minorities, including scholarships and modernisation of Ismalic seminaries is "politically motivated."

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated in one of his speeches that this is being done to somehow persuade minorities to not worry about the government and to show that the previous government created a wrong impression about the BJP. If that is the purpose behind giving the scholarship, it is clearly politically motivated," Mr Khurshid told news agency ANI.

The senior Congress leader slammed the BJP for questioning the UPA government when it launched many schemes in the welfare of the minorities.

He said, "Every government has a responsibility to treat every citizen equally. When we launched the schemes, it was called appeasement. Now that BJP government is doing the same, what shall it be called?"

The centre recently announced scholarships to five crore students belonging to the minority community in the next five years and modernisation of madrasas in its quest to reach out to the minority community.

The announcement to modernise of madrasas is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan that he laid out in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections in 2014. "Hold Quran in one hand and computer in other," Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said.