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MVA protests Nawab Malik’s arrest, BJP steps up resignation call
The MVA planned statewide protests over Malik’s arrest and on the misuse of central agencies against political opponents.
Leaders of Maharashtra’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi held a protest on Thursday against the arrest of the minority affairs minister, Nawab Malik, in a money laundering case allegedly involving fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his associates.
Malik was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday. He was remanded to eight days in the federal agency’s custody by a special court on Wednesday evening.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded Malik’s resignation after his arrest. On Thursday, a party leader familiar with strategy said they would corner the state government over the issue during the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.
But the MVA ruled out his resignation.
Senior ministers including deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal, revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, irrigation minister Jayant Patil, home minister Dilip Walse-Patil, minister for public works department Ashok Chavan, health minister Rajesh Tope and fisheries minister Aslam Shaikh, along with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule and other NCP and Congress leaders, were among those at the protest site at Mahatma Gandhi statue near Mantralaya in south Mumbai.
While the protest began at 10 am, Shiv Sena leaders joined it an hour later with party legislators from Mumbai coming to the venue.
State home minister Dilip Walse-Patil said the action against Malik was a political conspiracy and called the entire development “worse than Emergency”. He added that the protest was to draw the attention of the people.
“This is a political conspiracy against MVA and the protest is to draw the attention of the public to how the Centre is exhuming old cases and falsely accusing a person of terror funding by framing charges. When a person is arrested in such a manner, it has to be condemned,” he said.
The MVA planned statewide protests over Malik’s arrest and on the misuse of central agencies against political opponents.
Ashok Chavan said that the use of central agencies was done out of vindictiveness. “The action [against Malik] is political vendetta. Maharashtra has never seen such a low level of politics. There must be hardly a few examples in the country where such action was taken out of vindictiveness to settle a score. This is detrimental to the democracy and a wrong precedent,” he said.
The federal agency linked Malik directly to the Dawood Ibrahim gang, claiming that he usurped a prime property at Kurla — Goawala Compound, admeasuring about 3 acres and valued at about ₹300 crore — and while the land owner did not get a penny, Iqbal Malik, ₹55 lakh in cash and ₹5 lakh in cheque was paid on Nawab Malik’s behalf to Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar for her share in the property and thus, funded the gangster’s illegal activities.
Bhujbal defended his party colleague saying there is no connection between Malik and the terrorists who conducted the bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993. “Any Muslim person is being linked to Dawood and being defamed. Nawab Malik had no ties with the terrorists who were involved in the blasts. And is ₹55 lakh terror funding?” he asked.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too ,carried out protests across the state, demanding Malik’s resignation .
“This is a matter pertaining to national security… and hence, cannot be condoned,” said a BJP leader.
BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye called on chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to take action against Malik. “Will chief minister Uddhav Thackeray show his ‘Thakri Baana’ (the upfront style of speech and behaviour that the Thackerays are known for) by sacking Nawab Malik from the cabinet?... the NCP is supporting a minister who has conducted a land deal with those related to Dawood Ibrahim, this is not a usual allegation, but that of sedition,” he said.
He added that the NCP abrogated the CM’s powers by declaring that Malik would stay in the cabinet.
“The charges against him [Malik] are of a serious nature—of conducting a land deal with international terrorist Dawood Ibrahim,” Upadhye alleged, adding that Ibrahim was responsible for the deaths of 257 people in the 1993 bomb blasts.
“In the case of (former home minister) Anil Deshmukh, his resignation was taken immediately. Why isn’t this applicable to Nawab Malik? Is it because he is a Nawab Malik and to appease minority voters?” asked Upadhye, while warning that the government would have to face the consequences.
Upadhye said that the Shiv Sena was at the forefront of “protecting” the Hindus after the bomb blasts, and questioned if a Sena chief minister would protect those accused of having links with the blasts accused.
BJP state president Chandrakant Patil said, “Nawab Malik, who was involved in anti-national activities had no right to be in the cabinet.”
