BJP workers are raising provocative slogans in Sambhal to incite Muslims, the legislator said
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh deliberately carried out the survey of Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal on November 24 to cover up its anomalies in the Muslim-dominated Kundarki assembly bypoll, Samajwadi Party legislator from Sambhal has said.
Speaking in the state assembly in Lucknow on Monday, Nawab Iqbal Mehmood said the violence was planned to divert attention from the large-scale rigging and intimidation of voters in the Muslim-dominated Kundarki assembly bypoll. The results of the bypolls on nine seats, including Kundarki, were announced on November 23.
Mehmood said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) snatched the voting rights of Muslims in Kundarki to wrest the seat. “Police were deliberately deployed to prevent a section of the electorate, primarily Muslims, from voting,” media reports quoted him as saying.
He said BJP talks about unity and yet it tried to drive a wedge among the Muslim sects. “We are not going to get divided,” said Mehmood, who spoke on behalf of Leader of Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey on the Sambhal issue.
Mehmood said attempts were made to target the Jama Masjid in Badaun and recalled how the imam of the masjid was murdered in 1976. He said tensions were being stoked in the district again for political gains. Accusing the BJP of muzzling the voice of the opposition, Mehmood urged the state govt to form a committee of 10 MLAs to investigate the incident.
He said to stoke tension and in attempts to polarise society, BJP workers are raising provocative slogans in Sambhal to incite Muslims. “But we will not react, we will continue to work for the country. Still, we are looked at with suspicion,” he said, adding that the Sambhal violence should not be termed a “Hindu-Muslim” riot as its real cause was “the district administration.”
Mehmood said the Shiva-Hanuman temple, which was re-opened after decades in Sambhal last week, had remained untouched. “Not a single brick was laid in or over the temple. No idol was touched,” he said. “Hindus living in the locality have said they were never disturbed by the Muslims and devotees offered puja in the temple until 2006,” Times of India quoted him as saying.
Interestingly, Mehmood’s remarks were countered by Jansatta Dal Loktantrik chief and Kunda MLA Raja Bhaiya, the report said. “A Hindu winning from a Muslim-dominated seat should not be termed as “looting” votes,” he said referring to the newly elected BJP’s Kundarki MLA Ramveer Singh
Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra said that communal violence like the one in Bahraich and Sambhal has affected the state and said such incidents need to be investigated and facts be brought before the people.
