Reports of possible communal flare-up before polls disturbing: Shahi Imam

The US intelligence report that there was "strong possibility" of communal violence in India ahead of the Lok Sabha elections if the ruling BJP stresses on Hindu nationalist themes is a matter of concern, Shahi Imam Maulana Ahmed Bukhari said here on Thursday.

He said that the pushing of religious beliefs of the majority community by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh is in violation of India's Constitution that declares India to be a secular state.

Expressing concern at some of the recent actions of the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, such as holding cabinet meet at Kumbh and organising a grand function by the government machinery in Ayodhya on Ram Navami, Bukhari demanded to know if the country would be run through an elected "sansad" (parliament) or a "dharma sansad" (religious congregation).

He said that the way Narendra Modi government has approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to grant 67 acres of land in Ayodhya to Hindutva groups shows the government is illegally moving towards making India a "Hindu Rashtra".

Prominent Muslim body Jamat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) too questioned the government's intentions in moving the Supreme Court to return to its "owners" the "extra" land out of the 67.7 acres around Babri Masjid acquired by the then Central government in 1993.

The JIH asked the government to withdraw the petition concerned it filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

JIH President Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari said: "Because of this strange behaviour of the government, the people will be justified to conclude that the government is abandoning its duty of providing justice to its citizens, and keeping in view the upcoming parliamentary elections, it is trying to influence the voters for gaining political mileage by inciting them with pipe dreams."

"We advise the government that it should not forgo its constitutional obligations and withdraw its application. The government must honour the stay by the court. We wish to remind the government of its bounden duty to establish peace in the country and work hard for the development and prosperity of our nation," he added.

--IANS

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