Author: PNS
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 20, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/163861/CD-shows-Cong-leader-seeking-votes-in-name-of-Islam.html
BJP tells EC to take action
I regret not being a mufti. Had I been one,
I would have issued just one fatwa that going with the BJP amounts to committing
kufr." That was senior Congress leader Imran Kidwai speaking at an election
rally in Chandigarh on March 15, the BJP told the Election Commission on Thursday.
Kufr, it explained, is blasphemy and disbelieving
in the Quran or in any tenets of Islam and a person practising kufr is a kafir.
A party that is still reeling under attacks
following Varun Gandhi's alleged "inflammatory remarks" against
a community, stung the Congress on Thursday with a CD expose that shows the
head of the Congress' minority cell invoking Islam to seek votes for the ruling
party's candidate in Chandigarh. The CD was shown to journalists at the BJP
headquarters.
When Kidwai spewed venom and sought votes
on religious lines at a rally in the neighbourhood of Jama Masjid in the city,
AICC in-charge for Punjab Mohsina Kidwai and party candidate and Union Minister
Pawan Banswal were also present.
The BJP suspects that Kidwai's words might
have the Congress' endorsement since the party has neither condemned nor distanced
itself from the remarks of the senior party leader.
The BJP, which denied that the CD expose was
a tit-for-tat reaction to the Varun Gandhi episode, has petitioned the EC
to file a case against Kidwai. The BJP also wants the commission to act against
the Congress for not distancing itself from the controversial remarks or taking
action against the violation of the model code of conduct.
"The statement by such a senior Congress
functionary seeking votes in the name of religion and making statements that
endanger communal harmony between different communities is a clear and blatant
violation of the election laws and code of conduct," BJP spokesman Balbir
Punj told reporters here.
He maintained that while exhorting the Muslim
community, Kidwai said had the Muslim community not been with the Congress,
India would not have been able to attain independence.
"The personal law of Muslims is Shariat
and the Congress has assured them that it would not be changed since Shariat
is like imaan for Muslims," Kidwai appears saying on the CD even as he
suggested that those seeking reforms were guilty of attacking the imaan of
Muslims.
