BJP nominee to head Haj panel in Delhi, AAP cries foul

Thirty-six-year-old Jahan, a Delhi BJP minority cell leader and social activist, is the second woman after Tajdar Babar of the Congress to hold the post.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kausar Jahan was elected as the chairperson of Delhi State Haj Committee, which facilitates the pilgrimage of Muslims (Haj) and related matters, on Thursday.

Kausar Jahan was elected as the chairperson of Delhi State Haj Committee.

Thirty-six-year-old Jahan, a Delhi BJP minority cell leader and social activist, is the second woman after Tajdar Babar of the Congress to hold the post. Babar was chairperson of the committee for at least a decade from the early 1980s to 1990s. The committee and its chairperson have a three-year tenure. The last chairperson of the committee was Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Mukhtar Ahmed.

To be sure, this is the first time the AAP has lost control of the committee since coming to power in the Capital in 2015.

The election for the post was held at Delhi secretariat on Thursday, and the six members of the committee were eligible to vote. Jahan received three of five votes—one member abstained from voting and two AAP members walked out. “We walked out because the committee was formed illegally,” said AAP leader Abdul Rehman.

In January, lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena constituted Delhi State Haj Committee with six members, including BJP MP Gautam Gambhir, two AAP MLAs Abdul Rehman and Haji Yunus, besides Congress councillor from Zakir Nagar Naziya Danish, Muslim theology expert Mohammad Saad and Jahan. CM Arvind Kejriwal had then called the move unconstitutional and said that the LG decided the names and directly got a notification issued from officers concerned.

Jahan’s candidature was proposed by Saad.The three votes Jahan received included the votes of Gambhir, Saad and Jahan herself. Danish abstained from voting. Jahan won after she received Gambhir’s vote.

The AAP also hit out at the LG over the Haj Committee election on Thursday. “The LG has cheated once again. The Haj Committee consists of six members whose names are sent by the Delhi government. Only these six members elect their president by consensus. This time LG cleverly changed the names and appointed six persons as members from his side. Now BJP is claiming this as a victory,” AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said, adding the BJP leader’s victory was a “result of an unholy alliance between the BJP and the Congress”.

Officials of the LG office did not respond to requests for comment.

Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva said Jahan’s victory is an indicator of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and acceptance in the Muslim community. “The allegations of AAP are baseless and they are unable to accept the victory of a Muslim woman as Haj Committee chairperson. AAP has a habit of calling all decisions not favourable to them unconstitutional,” Sachdeva said.

The constitution of the Delhi State Haj Committee had sparked another confrontation between the AAP and LG in Januarywith the elected government calling the move unconstitutional. “LG dictated these names and directly got notification issued from officers. No process, no elected government? Constitution thrown to the winds. Sir, just because u control bureaucracy through “services”, you are able to get all your illegal directions implemented,” Kejriwal said in a tweet, sharing a copy of the notification in January.

The notification issued by deputy commissioner of the department of revenue of the Delhi government Ira Singhal said the LG constituted Delhi State Haj Committee under Rule 3(2) of the Delhi State Haj Committee Rules, 2006 and the power of “state government” entrusted to him under Section 2(i) of the Haj Committee Act, 2002.

In January, the AAP alleged that Congress councillor was made a member of the Haj Committee in return for the party’s support to the BJP during the mayoral election. Congress councillor Naziya Danish had called the allegations baseless. Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor had said, “Arvind Kejriwal does not trust his own councillors and despite having 134 councillors, the AAP is not confident of winning the mayor polls.”