Days after the BJP’s Minority Morcha took out a rally in the city to protest the alleged murder of its supporter Shiekh Rahim by Trinamool Congress (TMC) cadre, the saffron party was slammed by its political rivals and religious leaders of the minority community. They accused the BJP of trying to ‘hoodwink’ the Muslims to gain ‘political mileage in the State’.
Shahi Imam of Tipu Sultan Masjid Maulana Noor-ur-Rahaman Barkati told The Hindu, “The BJP’s rally against the murder of a minority community member is nothing but ‘eyewash’.
He rubbished the claims made by Minority Morcha president Shakil Ansari about the ‘backwardness of Madrasa education’, and said, “Madrasas are not just about religious education. Students there also receive modern education.”
As for Mr. Ansari’s allegation that Muslim youth can only become imams and will only be able to earn their livelihood by the monthly honorarium for Muslim clerics provided by the TMC government, Maulana Barkati described it ‘false propaganda’. He claimed that at present, the honorarium to imams was paid by the Board of Wakfs.
Taking pot shots at BJP leaders such as Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, he said, “Despite being a member of Muslim community, such BJP leaders have no respect for the religion.”
As for the BJP’s claim of a considerable number of Muslims voting for its candidates, Maulana Barkati pointed out that the party had got 31 per cent of the votes polled and ‘it proved that 69 per cent of the voters, including Muslims, voted against them. “The BJP came to power only because of the division of Muslim votes.”
Idrish Ali, TMC MP from Basirhat constituency in North 24 Parganas district, ‘cautioned’ the BJP not to ‘indulge in communal and divisive politics’.
He trashed the BJP’s protest rally ‘utterly hypocritical’ and pointed out that the same party was involved in the massacre of Muslims in the 2002 riots in Gujarat. He alleged ‘communalism was the BJP’s primary agenda’ and the rally was part of its ‘vote-bank politics’. Mr. Ali ‘strongly condemned’ Mr. Ansari’s remark about the outcome of Madrasa education and said no one had the right to ‘insult the religious and social traditions of a community’.
Coming down heavily on the BJP for ‘shedding crocodile’s tears for Muslims’, senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan asked, “What did the BJP do for Muslims when the National Democratic Alliance government was in power for six years?”
He claimed that whatever development of the minority community had taken place, the Congress deserved the credit.
“The BJP responsible for Babri Masjid demolition and Gujarat riots are now talking about minority development” he said.
Mr. Mannan alleged that the entire ‘verbal duel’ between the TMC and the BJP over minority rights was nothing, but a ‘got-up game’ and pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly praised Ms. Banerjee recently.
Md. Selim, senior CPI (M) leader and party MP from Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur, took a dig at the BJP’s rally, and said, “They do not even spare the dead (murdered BJP worker Mr. Rahim) in their communal campaign.”
