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Yogi meets clerics, assures strict action against anyone exploiting minorities
A day after National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met religious leaders, including top Muslim clerics in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath
A day after National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met religious leaders, including top Muslim clerics in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath convened a meeting of clerics of both Shia and Sunni sects and assured them that he would initiate strict action against anyone found exploiting minorities under his watch.
“Please inform me if any government staff exploits or harasses you. I would initiate stern action against such people,” Adityanath said to a delegation of Muslim clerics who met him along with Mohsin Raza, the government’s lone Muslim minister here.
“Muslims are about 17 per cent of the state’s population but statistics show that they have been given above 30 per cent benefits in all major government schemes,” Adityanath said.
The chief minister met the clerics, including Hamidul Hasan, renowned Islamic scholar from Nadwa Salman Hussain Nadwi, along with nearly 15 others, for nearly an hour and thanked them for their cooperation in securing peace before and after the Ayodhya verdict.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath both have taken steps to secure ‘sabka vishwas’ (confidence of all) too,” Raza said, praising the cooperation of “each and everyone” in maintaining peace.
Raza, who had met several Muslim clerics ahead of the Ayodhya verdict, has also been meeting them after it as part of a BJP-RSS initiative to connect with the minorities.
Not only did the Muslim clerics issue appeals to the community to maintain peace irrespective of the verdict, after the judgment, a majority of Muslims have ruled out reviewing the apex court’s order.
After Sunni Waqf Board chief Zufar Farooqui who was the first to rule out a review of SC order, top Shia cleric Kalbe Sadiq and senior Sunni cleric Khalid Rasheed Firangimahal – both senior members of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) - said they too were against going in review of the SC order, which has now paved the way for construction of a temple at what was formerly referred to as disputed site in Ayodhya.
Prominent Sunni cleric Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahal, also the naib imam of Lucknow Eidgah, too supported the view though his reasons differed.
“Going up in review would have made sense had it been a split verdict. But since it has been a unanimous one, there is little to be achieved by way of review though for academic reasons we are all for debate and discussion and dissection of the verdict,” Firangimahal told HT afterwards. He wasn’t part of the delegation though.
