By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net
Lucknow : With all parties going after Muslims in poll bound Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party winded up its silver jubilee celebrations without mention of Muslims.
None of the Muslim leaders except Mulayam touched any issue related to Muslims. SP’s Muslim face Azam Khan was however not present as he is on an abroad trip.
Not only this, a Shia Muslim leader Javed Abedi was pushed aside from mike by SP’s state president Shivpal Yadav for making his speech longer than stipulated time. Though Abedi is counted as close to Akhilesh Yadav and has little support among Muslims.
In the first row on the stage where SP leaders and other stalwarts sat, none of the Muslim leaders got place.
Muslims constitute nearly 18 percent of state’s population. In 2012 assembly polls 68 Muslim legislators were elected with 43 maximum on SP ticket. SP and its leader Mulayam Singh Yadav is considered the first and natural choice among Muslims. But the party choose to keep Muslim leaders at a bay during its silver jubilee celebrations.
Only two Muslim leaders Maharashtra MLA Abu Asim Azmi and minister Riyaz Ahmed got the chance to speak during the function. Some others were present but were not seated in the first row.
Azmi however concentrated mostly on praising Akhilesh and his government’s policies. He claimed that Modi failed to make smart cities but Akhilesh government’s policies are attracting film makers from Mumbai to UP. Riyaz Ahmed tried to corner Modi over the martyred soldiers issue. Ironically none of them raised any Muslim issues. Another fact that both of them were given chance to speak before the arrival of Mulayam.
Javed Abedi who has been bestowed with the chairmanship of a corporation too touched new height in comparing Akhilesh. While he equated Mulayam as sea and Akhilesh as its depth, he was signaled by Mulayam to wind up his speech. But he continued with his idioms to praise Akhilesh. Another signal by Mulayam and he was pushed away from the mike by Shivpal.
Though Mulayam understanding the temperament of Muslims stated in his speech that atrocities are heaped upon Muslims and asked Akhilesh to ensure that no such things happen in UP. Interestingly, Akhilesh in his speech did not touch the subject of Muslim issues.