By A. Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: All India Shia Federation held a press conference in Mumbai and urged Shia community living in the vicinity of Mumbai to vote only for the secular parties and not to fall prey to the false propaganda of development created by BJP. Federation said that their decision to vote for secular parties was not influenced by any party but that the situation which has been created in the country before election has left Muslim Community with the option of selecting secular party.
During the conference Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi said, ”This election is mainly between the saffron and secular parties and BJP is actually fighting only on the basis of Narendra Modi who is well known for his anti-Muslim stand and therefore must be defeated in the upcoming elections”.
He also said, “We do not support parties who are campaigning on the basis of religion and hence I appeal to the shias living in Mumbai to vote for secular party”.
Maulana Ali Azhgar Hyderi said,”Main intention of the conference is to guide community on using their vote for upcoming elections and to restrict them from voting saffron parties because community has already witnessed Gujarat 2002 riots”.
He asked the community to not accept false commitments given by saffron party and said ,”The man who was Chief Minister of state during 2002 riots has been projected as Prime Minister of the country and BJP is using every possible means to come to the power”.
Given a chance to choose as a savior from the list of villain, it is obvious that you would opt for the least lethal one. This is the situation produced before Indian Muslims every five years when they prepare their mind for voting. Muslims in Maharashtra form close to 14 per cent of the total electorate of the state and play a vital role in determining the poll outcome in certain constituencies.
Presently the Muslim community living in Maharashtra has some of these questions – should they vote against and teach the ruling Congress-NCP alliance a lesson or should they prefer other secular parties like the Samajwadi Party or the new Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or should they vote for purely Muslim parties such Welfare Party or Peace Party.
The community as a whole may be divided into these options but almost every Muslim believes that the community must vote against saffron forces to keep Narendra Modi at bay. This is because the community may compromise their development but not the security and they fear that the Narendra Modi government will not provide them security.
Maulana Aziz Hyder, Maulana Manzoor Abbas and other members of the Shia Federation also addressed the press conference.