By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Barely a week before his commencing trip to Geneva to address an international conference wherein he was to speak about the conditions of Muslims in India, the Congress government of Assam has denied MP Maulana Badruddin Ajmal the political clearance necessary for MPs going abroad. Maulana Ajmal is seeking Prime Minister’s intervention to save his scheduled trip.
Assam United Democratic Front chief Maulana Ajmal, who represents Assam’s Dhubri constituency in the Lok Sabha, was to read a paper on the conditions o Muslims in India particularly Assam at the international conference in Geneva on November 12-13.
Though the state government has not told the MP the reason of the denial it is said that the government did not want home issues to be raised at a global conference abroad.
It is said that perfume baron Maulana Ajmal’s paper had already been approved by the US embassy in New Delhi and the organizers of the conference in Geneva. The Union Ministry of External Affairs had okayed his trip and sought political clearance from the state government for visa purposes.
Sources close to the MP told TCN that AUDF chief Maulana Ajmal has decided to write to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh seeking his urgent intervention in the case so that he could attend the conference. He will also write to the Union Ministries of Home Affairs and Minority Affairs.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections AUDF has emerged as the main rival of the ruling Congress in Assam. Though the two-year-old party could win only one seat it ensured the defeat of half a dozen candidates of the Congress. AUDF has 10 MLAs in the State Assembly.