Bareilly, Aug 18 (IANS) All India Muslim Jamaat President Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi on Tuesday accused the Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav and the Muslim leaders of “so called secular parties” of “instilling fear” in the community and “spreading poison against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”.
Ahead of the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the All India Muslim Jamaat President appealed the Muslim community to refrain from indulging in “politics of opposition” anymore.
Speaking to IANS, the Muslim cleric asserted that Muslims live and carry out their religious, political, social work in India with absolute freedom.
“There is no fear anywhere in the country, no terror, and in fact there is no need to be afraid. This land is ours, it belongs to our ancestors, why should we fear anyone? Muslims are a community which only dreads the Almighty, not any person,” he said.
Targeting the Samajwadi Party, Maulana Shahabuddin alleged: “The Muslim leaders of so-called secular parties and SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav engage in instilling fear among members of the Muslim community…These people go to Muslim-dominated areas and spread poison against the BJP.”
“I would now urge the Muslim brothers to not take the onus of defeating the BJP (in elections). Instead, isn’t it the responsibility of Akhilesh Yadav, Tejaswi Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and others?” he asked.
Moreover, the All India Muslim Jamaat President added: “From 2017 till date, it has been almost 10 years of politics of opposition where the Muslims have only opposed the BJP. As a result, the Samajwadi Party grew stronger, the Muslims grew weaker. And all the losses had to be borne by the Muslims. The benefits are being reaped by the SP people, the so-called secular parties are reaping them.”
The Muslim cleric also accused SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav of “setting agenda with the BJP in the darkness of the night”.
Further, he referred to Kalyan Singh’s splinter group (Rashtriya Kranti Party) providing legislative support to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government in 2004.
Addressing the Muslim community, Maulana Shahabuddin said: “Do not unnecessarily cause disagreement with anyone. Do not engage in politics of opposition anymore.”
He urged the Muslim community to now vote for those people who call themselves “powerful leaders”.
“The so-called secular parties should now fulfill their responsibilities. The Muslims should now work with a positive thinking instead of negative politics. Only then the new generation will have a brighter future, otherwise, just like the past 10 years, you (Muslims) will have to bear the consequences again,” he added.
–IANS
cg/khz
