Muslims not against Congress support for Sena

Despite the Shiv Sena’s Hindu hardline agenda, Muslims in the city are not opposed to the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party joining hands with it to form a government

Despite the Shiv Sena’s Hindu hardline agenda, Muslims in the city are not opposed to the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party joining hands with it to form a government in Maharashtra. Reasons? Muslims are unanimous that they will prefer the Sena to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They feel the current Sena leadership represented by Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray is moderate. “We prefer anyone, but the BJP,” said Saeed Noori, who heads the Raza Academy.

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Haris Shaikh, an interior decorator, said, “We have held meetings with Aaditya Thackeray and found him to be understanding of our issues.”

In the past five years, Muslims are disturbed by the incidents of lynching as well as the tirade by right-wing leaders from Sangh Parivar. Recently, an editorial in Saamana calling for a ban on burqa on the lines of that imposed by Sri Lanka after the bomb blasts was snubbed by the Sena leadership.

Ashrafuunisa Ahmed, a homemaker, said, “The Sena will be under pressure not to undertake any misadventure against Muslims and our rights would be safeguarded.” Former Sena minister Ravindra Waikar said: “Muslims especially the youths have seen the Sena work for their welfare.”