Author: Sweta Ramanujan-Dixit (sweta.ramanujam@hindustantimes.com)
Publication: Hindustan Times
Dated: September 6, 2007
The state president of a saffron party speaking
at a mosque after Friday prayers in a town with a sizeable Muslim population
- may have been inconceivable until today, but will happen on Friday.
Nitin Gadkari, president of the Bharatiya
Janata Party's Maharashtra chapter, will speak at the Jama Masjid in Aurangabad
on Friday - on irregularities in wakf land dealings in Maharashtra.
"The religious leaders from the community
have invited me to speak after namaz (prayers)," said Gadkari.
"The people there are very upset that
there were irregularities in wakf dealings despite the fact that there are
so many Muslim legislators in Maharashtra."
Wakf (plural aukaf) is a permanent dedication
of movable or immovable properties for religious, pious or charitable purposes
as recognized by Islamic Law.
HT had reported on May 6, 2007, that an inquiry
ordered by the state and conducted by Sadiq Qadri, chief financial officer
of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, had recommended that
all wakf board transactions since the Board's inception in 2002 be looked
into by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
The state had ordered an inquiry into wakf
dealings after it received complaints from trustees of wakf properties across
the state. The inquiry had also recommended a CID inquiry into allegations
against the Board.
A booklet recently published by the BJP, Secular
Bhrashtachaar (corruption), listed details of irregularities in wakf land
transactions in the state. Apart from the Marathi edition, the party printed
nearly 10,000 copies of the booklet in Urdu and distributed it among the Muslim
community, a first for the party.
The booklet, like Gadkari's speech in the
legislative council during the monsoon session, highlights the case of Nirman
Bharti Landmark Private Limited, a company in Aurangabad which is now being
categorized as wakf property.
The case was an obvious ex ample that attracted
the Opposition, as Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's brother, Dilip, was
one of the directors of the company when the deal was struck.
Deshmukh had then announced that the state
CID and a judicial commission headed by a retired high court or district court
judge would probe the allegations related to wakf properties in the state.
Gadkari will succeed in getting his message,
political or otherwise, across to a large section of the Muslim community
through his speech in Aurangabad, a city that is built on and around wakf
land.
