வக்பு நிலங்கள் ஊழலை தடுக்க குரல் கொடுப்பதால் பாஜகவுக்கு முஸ்லீம்கள் பாராட்டு

அவுரங்காபாத் முஸ்லீம் சமூகம் பாரதிய ஜனதா கட்சியினருக்கு சிவப்பு கம்பள வரவேற்பு அளித்தனர்.

பாஜக வக்பு வாரியத்தில் நடைபெற்ற ஊழலை வெளிக்கொணர்ந்து முஸ்லீம்களது நிலங்கள் அபகரிக்கப்படுவதை தடுத்ததே காரணம்

Muslims toast BJP for raising Wakf land issue
8 Sep, 2007, 0047 hrs IST,Abhiram Ghadyalpatil, TNN

AURANGABAD: Call it minority appeasement in reverse mode. For a change, it was the BJP which was soaking up all the glory. On Friday, the local Muslim community rolled out a red carpet welcome for the party functionaries for raking up issues that involved, quite ironically, a host of Congress politicians, including chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Anjuman-e-Tahafuze Auqaf on Friday felicitated BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Eknath Khadse and two others for highlighting the Wakf land issue, at a function in Aurangabad. "It's an honour not only for me, but for my party as well. The Muslim community has shown a heart-warming keenness to know everything about the controversy involving Wakf properties worth thousands of crores in the state. Their gesture makes a statement that no political party should take them for granted and misuse properties meant for welfare and religious purposes," Mr Gadkari told ET.

The BJP’s spin doctors spared no efforts in advertising the Muslims’ new-found bonhomie with the saffron outfit. In Muslim-dominated Aurangabad, the event was well-attended, despite the fact that the party in question was the BJP.

It was in July when Mr Gadkari stoked the Wakf fire by raising it in the state assembly, thereby putting the state government on notice. Hailing from Nagpur, the RSS headquarters, Mr Gadkari had launched a blistering attack against the Deshmukh government for allowing commercial exploitation of a large chunk of Wakf properties by those owing allegiance to the Congress.

Though he largely failed to connect with the ordinary Muslim crowd at the rally, he was at his persuasive best while wooing them. He said: “There are differences between the BJP and the Muslim community about several issues, but we should agree on certain fundamental points.”

He drew applause from the audience when he sought to project the entire Wakf controversy as a fallout of the Congress-NCP government’s “encroachment on properties belonging to all religions in the state”.

“Several prominent members of the Muslim community congratulated me on raising the issue. Many more wrote letters urging me to take the controversy to its logical conclusion,” recalled Mr Gadkari.

In fact, the BJP stalwart savoured every bit of it, coming as it did from a Muslim platform in Aurangabad, which is home to a large minority base. “It points to the winds of change sweeping the Muslim community. They are getting fed up with the Congress that uses them merely as vote bank,” he claimed.

Mr Gadkari was dismissive of the suggestions that it was a political gimmick. The BJP was only concerned about Wakf properties and needed the community support to restore the assets to the board, he stressed.

Given its all-out efforts to mend bridges with the Muslims, the current endeavour of the party looked like a desperate measure to recover some of its lost ground.