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"Judgment not acceptable"

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: A day ahead of the first phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party general secretary and spokesman Amar Singh said Thursday's Allahabad High Court ruling that Muslims in the State could no longer be treated as a religious minority was "unacceptable."

At a press conference here on Friday, Mr. Singh said the party would appeal against the judgment and, if necessary, press for a law in Parliament to treat Muslims as a religious minority. He recalled that the same judge had passed an order against the minority character of the Aligarh Muslim University.

On the controversial compact disc released by the BJP, Mr. Singh backed the demand for the party's derecognition and said senior leaders, including Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh, should apologise for hurting the sentiments of the Muslims.

On Shatrughan Sinha's charge that Amitabh Bachchan had done the advertisement on U.P. law and order situation for "money," Mr. Singh said the actor had not taken a single penny. "He is quoting the statistics put out by the Home Ministry's National Crime Bureau in the advertisement that was duly approved by the Election Commission. Mr. Sinha should have respect for his fraternity. The proper forum to raise this would have been the Election Commission."

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