The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has once again accused the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh of ignoring the interests and welfare of Muslims. In an interview to a local daily, the Shahi Imam has said that the SP government was not doing anything for welfare of Muslims.
“There is not even a single Muslim minister in this government who is working for Muslims, their issues and problems. They just work for personal gains,” he as quoted as having said.
He criticised the Muslim leadership in state government and said that though many Muslim leaders had been given the status of state minister but the departments given to them were of no use for Muslim development.
“Even in DSP Zia-ul-Haq murder case, all these ministers and leaders chose to remain silent,” he said.
In an obvious reference to senior UP minister Mohd Azam Khan, Maulana Bukhari alleged that there was a minister who had got more than nine departments which have nothing to do with Muslims and no one likes him.
“If SP fields him forthcoming parliamentary elections, he will not able to get even four votes,” he claimed.
The Shahi Imam has also voiced his concern over the SP’s failure to give 18 per cent reservation to Muslims, as promised during Assembly elections.
“There are 8 per cent Yadavs in the state and 30 per cent Muslims. You can see Yadav officers in important police and civil posts but the number of Muslims can be counted on finger tips. If the Samajwadi Party is sincere, it should immediately give 4.5 per cent reservation out of 27 per cent quota,” he said.
The Shahi Imam said that he would do some thinking about giving issue based support to the SP in the 2014 LS elections.
Interestingly, the Shahi Imam’s outburst against the Akhilesh government comes just two days after he had a meeting with Samajwadi president Mulayam Singh Yadav in Lucknow after which the latter had said that all was well between him and the Maulana.