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Removed from post, Rubina Khanum resigns from Samajwadi Party
Besides calling the Akhilesh Yadav-led party “anti-Hindu, anti-women, Khanum alleged that SP indulged in appeasement politics
A day after being removed from her post of city unit president of Mahila Sabha, Aligarh, Rubina Khanum resigned from the primary membership of the Samajwadi Party (SP) for not being allowed to speak in ‘national interest’.
Known for her controversial statements, Khanum had recently spoken on Gyanvapi Mosque issue in Varanasi. She had appealed to the Muslim community that if the claims of Hindus were proven right, then the Muslim community, religious leaders and Ulemas should hand over the land to the claimants.
Khanum was removed from the post on Saturday, citing ‘indiscipline’ and for her statements against the party line.
‘I had stated the truth about handing over of Gyanvapi mosque complex to Hindu brothers if their claim was proven right but Samajwadi Party could not take my comment issued in the national interest and penalised me for speaking truth. Thus, there is no point staying with SP, and I have resigned from its primary membership,” Khanum said on Sunday.
“I could not have expected more from Samajwadi Party. It’s the same party which failed to respect her own daughter-in-law (making an indirect reference to Aparna Yadav, the daughter-in-law of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, who joined BJP before the recently held state elections).”
“I am a social worker, a poet and a writer and was under the wrong impression that SP as a party would respect my sentiments in the national interest, but it proved to be a myth,” alleged Khanum.
Meanwhile, the district unit president for SP, Aligarh, Girish Yadav informed that decision to remove Khanum was taken by state president Naresh Uttam. “She is free to leave the party as it does not matter,” added Yadav.
Khanum had also called the Akhilesh Yadav-led party “anti-Hindu, anti-women and a party that indulged in appeasement politics”.
She said that though the party cited ‘indiscipline’ as the reason behind her removal from the post of president of Mahila Sabha, the real reason was her recent comments on the Gyanvapi mosque. Khanum, of late, had hogged headlines over her controversial statements on the Hijab and loudspeaker rows in quick succession.
In mid-April, Khanum had created controversy through her statement on loudspeaker in response to which the Aligarh police had filed an FIR at the Civil Lines police station.
Khanum had said, “Do not disturb Muslims. Do not interfere in our religion or else we (Muslim women) are not sitting wearing bangles. We in thousands will sit outside your temples and recite Quran on loudspeakers”.
Her statement was allegedly in response to an announcement by some Hindu outfits that they would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside mosques. During the peak of the Hijab row in February, Rubina had said: “Will chop off the arms of those who put hands on Hijab”.
