By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Jaipur: The Rajasthan unit of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) took strong exception to Leader of Opposition in Parliament L.K. Advani’s statement in which he had tried to paint the Union Budget 2008-09 with communal colour.
JIH state president Mohammed Salim accused him of using the meager alloca¬tions in the budget for minorities as a fodder for his hate campaign. Advani had said that he was surprised at the heavy communal overtones of the budget. “It is a throwback to the Liaqat Ali days, the conse¬quences of which are well-known,” he had said.
Talking to reporters in Jaipur on 2nd March, Salim said Advani’s rhetoric trying to connect the budget with the pre-partition politics smacked of his communal mindset that refuses to see the need for bringing minorities to the mainstream of development. He said Liaqat Ali Khan, as secretary of the Muslim League, was one of the main architects of Pakistan but his political beliefs and activities as a member of the United Provinces Legislative Council in the 1930s and later the Central Legislative Assembly have no relevance whatsoever to the present era in independent India.