PUNE, 9 September 2007 — The strategy of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to woo Muslims, anticipating midterm polls for the Parliament, fizzled out in Aurangabad on Friday, as the Congress succeeded in keeping away the minority community from the BJP meeting.
The meeting turned out to be a damp squib as only about 30 Muslims attended the event, which was held at Nehru Bhavan auditorium, adjoining the Jama Mosque. The BJP had announced that its state President Nitin Gadkari and other leaders were invited to address worshippers at the Jama Mosque after Friday prayers.
This claim of the BJP was denied by the trustees of the Jama Mosque, who stated that the BJP was misleading the Muslims through the media, and that neither Gadkari nor any other BJP leader was invited to speak in the mosque.
“The mosque management had nothing to do with the meeting, which was widely publicized in the media, and that the program was organized by Maharashtra Awqaf Council (MAC) President Asad Farouqi,” said a member of the mosque management committee. Gadkari appeared upset with the small presence at the meeting, and alleged that the state government machinery was misused to exert pressure and prevent Muslims from turning out in large number for the meeting.
He asked the Muslims to “open their eyes and see what the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were doing in the name of secularism.”
The Congress was using the Muslims for their vote bank politics, he said and added: “We are not here to beg for your votes, because we know well that Muslims may not agree with us on many issues and neither would we agree with them or others. But remember that the Congress was never sincere in doing any good for Muslims.”
Speaking extensively on the issue of irregularities in the state Waqf Board, Gadkari said: “Don’t trust the BJP, but at least please do not remain blind and ignore the hard evidence that is placed before you. The BJP is not raising this issue to garner Muslim votes.”
He demanded that the government come out with a status report on the Waqf lands taken over by the government through a notification on Wednesday.
Gadkari referred to the alleged sale of Waqf lands worth millions of rupees for peanuts to Nirman Bharati Developers, a company owned by Dilip Deshmukh, brother of state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, and questioned as to how the Waqf property in Aurangabad worth 600 million rupees was sold off for 80 million rupees.
Gadkari challenged the chief minister to prosecute him if his allegations about the Waqf lands prove to be false.
Alleging that the Congress-NCP led Democratic government was besieged with corruption and interested in siphoning off Waqf lands belonging to Muslim community, Gadkari said it was high time for the Muslims to wake up and take interest in the irregularities that are taking place related to Waqf properties.
Gadkari also expressed apprehension on government’s decision to constitute a judicial probe into the alleged cases of Waqf land grabbing and said that the delay in appointing the retired high court judge could well mean that crucial documents pertaining to the land deals may go missing from the state Waqf Board office in Aurangabad.
The BJP leaders on the dais were taken by surprise, when their host Asad Farouqi of the MAC, demanded the immediate arrest of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray under the provisions of Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act. Asking when would the victims of the Mumbai communal riots of 1992-93 get justice, Farouqi challenged Deshmukh to dare arrest Thackeray under TADA. The demand of Thackeray’s arrest has created an upheaval in the political circles of the state.
Another member of the MAC, Mohammed Hussain Khan, raised the question of the Sachar Commission report to woo the minorities and said that the panel report was an honest reflection of the backwardness of the community.
BJP legislator Pasha Patel said he would try to convince the Shiv Sena leaders to withdraw their opposition to the implementation of the Sachar Commission report and blamed the Congress-led federal government for becoming a stumbling block in the development of the community for several years.