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Naib Imam flays Mulayam for role during political crisis

The Naib Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari today severely condemned all 'secular parties', including the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, for the current political crisis, saying they are not serious about saving secularism.

In a strongly worded statement, the Naib Imam said, ''The unwanted hurry of the Congress, childish behaviour of Mulayam Singh Yadav and the unnecessarily cautious behaviour of the left parties had put the country into the lap of the BJP again.''

He also blamed the parties for making Atal Bihari Vajpayee the caretaker prime minister and the position of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh 'stable.'

The Naib Imam said, ''The insistence of the Congress on forming a minority government, that of Yadav to join the government and the failure of the left front in coordinating, all led to this situation.''

Severely criticising Yadav for his role during the whole episode, he said first the Samajwadi Party chief urged Sonia Gandhi to bring down the BJP government and when it fell, he started bargaining by asking for his share in the new dispensation, saying that the Babri Masjid issue cannot be sorted out by staying out of the government.

The Naib Imam said during the regime of the two United Front governments, in which Yadav was defence minister, no efforts were made to solve the Babri Masjid issue.

The Naib Imam said the BJP and its allies, by giving a certificate of nationalism to Yadav for not supporting the Congress-led government, have certified the belief that the Samajwadi Party and the BJP were strengthening each other.

Though Yadav had been telling Muslims that there was no difference between the Congress and the BJP, he supported the BJP's point of view that Sonia Gandhi was a foreigner and foreign powers were conspiring to make her the prime minister, he said.

He, however, criticised the advisors of the Congress for leading the country into uncertainty for nine days and pressuring the party to form the government on its own. ''They (the advisors) created a situation in favour of the BJP by not forming a coalition government and destroyed the favourable wave in its favour,'' he added.

The Naib Imam appreciated the role played by the Rashtriya Janata Dal, AIADMK, the Bahujan Samaj Party and Saifuddin Soz during the current crisis.

The Jama Masjid advisory council working committee would soon hold an important meeting to discuss the political situation and the scenario in the coming elections.

UNI

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