By TCN Special Corespondent,
Ahmedabad: After Deoband Darul Uloom rector Maulana Ghulam Muhammed Vastanvi and leading businessman Zafar Sareshwala having made strong pleas in favour of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, it is now Bollywood music composer Ismail Darbar and Barelvi Ulema Abdul Sattar Hamdani who are extending their support to Modi’s “developmental” and “anti-terror” policies.
While Darbar has high political ambitions and is reported to be planning to contest the next assembly elections in December 2012 from Surat, Hamdani has not yet made his political ambitions clear.
Darbar recently also called on BJP national president Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur for his entry into the party. At a press briefing in Nagpur, he reportedly appealed Muslims to forget what happened in 2002 and extend full support to Modi in Gujarat.
Hamdani is surprisingly an accused in the 1993 RDX and rifle landing case at Gosabara in Porbander district which was reportedly used by Dawood Ibrahim and his associates in serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.
The 60-plus Hamdani, having sizeable influence among the Barelvi Muslims in the state, was accused of having provided logistical support to the D-gang members in landing of the explosive materials and firearms and then its transportation to Mumbai.
But Hamdani along with 21 others from Porbander and nearby areas, accused in the case under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act(TADA), were later on acquitted by the court owing to lack of evidence against them.
A pro-Congress man, Hamdani since his release has, however, taken a 180-degree turn politically. Though he has not formally joined any political party so far, at a recent press conference at Porbander, he heaped praises on Modi and dubbed Sonia Gandhi’s political adviser and Congress strongman from Gujarat, Ahmed Patel, a “supporter of terrorists”.
Strongly opposed to the Tablighi Jamaat, Hamdani allegedly described the Tablighi Jamaat an outfit supporting terrorism. Stating that Ahmed Patel was a Tablighi, Hamdani said that Ahmed Patel by virtue of being a Tablighi was a “terrorist”.
Regarding Modi, he said: “Modi is fighting terror.” But common Muslims hold Modi responsible for the 2002 riots in which about 2,000 persons, mostly Muslims, were killed and Muslim properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees were destroyed.
It may be mentioned here that three senior IPS officers are facing trouble because of Hamdani. They are Atul Karwal, H P Singh and Satish Verma. On June 11, they were served notices by the state government for allegedly not taking prompt action against Hamdani during their posting in Porbander. The notices were issued on the orders of the Gujarat High Court on a PIL filed by senior advocate Yatin Oza.
These developments seem to be in favour of Modi who has been trying to project himself as a man of development with a view to playing a role at the national level in BJP and become prime minister in the event of BJP-led NDA winning enough seats to capture power at the centre. But the only thing coming in this is the stigma of 2002.