MUMBAI, 31 August 2007 — The Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trumped the Congress and its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with a pre-election move in wooing Muslims.
The state BJP party released a 48-page booklet of its original Marathi language in Urdu language titled Congress-NCP’s Secular Corruption, Mosque, Madarsa, Idgah, and Graveyard Land Up for Sale as part of its campaign for the state assembly elections next year.
It features detailed information on the alleged Waqf land grab, which has evoked large response from the Muslim community. The foreword has been written by Gopinath Munde, a prominent BJP leader from Maharashtra, who is also the BJP national general secretary.
The exposure of the sale of Waqf and other Muslims religious lands by the BJP state unit, has been applauded by several Muslim leaders who thanked the BJP for exposing the issue.
Muslim Front leader Farid Batatawala said, “For the Muslims, the issue would have been forgotten, but for the booklet. Now the Congress, on the back foot, is trying to convince Muslims that the BJP is only out to play politics,” he said, adding that it is now time for the Muslims leaders to ask the Congress as to why they allowed such incidents to happen while giving BJP a field day?
Maulana Mohammed Abdul Kalam Qasmi, secretary of the All-India Ulema Council, said that it was commendable of the BJP to have dug out detailed information on the Waqf Board land scam and also of sale of other religious lands like graveyards, complexes, madarsas and orphanages. He further stated that the Urdu booklet exposed the tall claims of secularism by the ruling Congress-NCP alliance.
Qasmi said: “The Congress party has been misleading the Muslims for the last 60 years and has allowed the sale of Waqf Board land. Lands belonging to the Muslims have been taken away through illegal means. All that the Muslims are now asking the Congress-NCP led Democratic Front government is to return the Waqf lands that have been grabbed illegally,” he added.
The booklet, the brainchild of state BJP President Nitin Gadkari, is drawing appreciation from the Muslim community, who are now more curious to know more on the alleged irregularities in the Waqf land sale.
State BJP spokesman, Madhav Bhandari said that following a huge demand for the booklet by the Muslim community, 10,000 more Urdu booklets have been ordered.
Some NGOs and leaders who have concentrated on highlighting the implementation of the Srikrishna panel report while neglecting the issue of the irregularities in the Waqf land sale, also came in for sharp criticism from Muslim leaders.
