NEW DELHI, 26 April 2004 — The Congress party yesterday rejected shahi imam of Delhi Jama Masjid, Ahmed Bukhari’s appeal to Muslims to support the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections and said only the results will speak about the influence he commands over the community.
“Whatever Bukhari said was his viewpoint. No comment on that. But what impact his appeal would make on the community would be known in the coming days,” party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters when asked to comment on the shahi imam’s appeal.
Sharma said it was expected of the prime minister to follow the model code of conduct at a time when elections were in full swing, but his recent announcements were “surprising”. If he was so sincere about Muslims, Vajpayee should have acted in case of Gujarat by sacking Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has been indicted by the Supreme Court not once but thrice, he said.
Asked to comment on the BJP’s charge that the Congress had always opposed coalitions in the past, Sharma said BJP leaders have “lost their senses.”
He reminded the BJP that the Congress party had entered into “principled” alliances in Kerala and was now running a successful government with the NCP in Maharashtra.
Congress also took strong objection to a committee of Muslims in support of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee displaying Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf`s portrait on its van and wanted to know if the saffron party was seeking votes of minorities while “doubting their patriotism”.
