Azam: Muslims being persecuted in India

| | Lucknow
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Azam: Muslims being persecuted in India

Sunday, 21 July 2019 | PNS | Lucknow

In yet another controversial statement, senior leader of Samajwadi Party and Lok Sabha member Mohammad Azam Khan said on Saturday that Muslims in the country were being punished for their decision to not migrate to Pakistan after the partition in 1947. He said Muslims were being persecuted for that fault in the form of mob lynching.

“Why did our ancestors not go to Pakistan? Well, they considered India as their nation. This is our fault. Maulana Azad, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and even Bapu had appealed to Muslims to not migrate to Pakistan,” Azam Khan said when asked about his views on growing incidents of mob lynching.

Azam Khan, a Member of Parliament from Rampur, claimed that Muslims have not been able to live a dignified life in the country. 

“We have been living a very disgusting life since 1947 and we are very ashamed of it,” he said.

The SP leader also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh was fabricating land dispute cases against him because he managed to defeat saffron party candidate Jaya Prada in the Lok Sabha election.

The state government has recently put Azam Khan’s name on anti-land mafia portal after several complaints were registered against him for allegedly grabbing land in Rampur, his home district.

Azam Khan, a former state Cabinet minister, is known for his controversial remarks. During the Lok Sabha election, he had said that Jaya Prada wore a khaki underwear, a reference to her alleged affiliation with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

“I won the election against powerful people despite their several tactics. I am being punished for that mistake. The Rampur district magistrate had gone to polling stations wearing a saffron shirt and harassed voters. Still, I emerged victorious,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s UP unit condemned Azam Khan for invoking the name of Pakistan.   “Azam Khan is talking about Pakistan after the Yogi Adityanath government cracked the whip against the encroachment on public land and the land belonging to the poor Muslims of Rampur,” BJP spokesman Shalabh Mani Tripathi said.

“For the construction of his private Jauhar University, Azam Khan did not spare the poor Muslims and Dalits, who were forcibly evicted from their land to make for the private university. An 85-year-old Muslims widow, Shazadi Begum, was dispossessed of her house where her family was living for the past several generations,” the BJP state spokesman said and added, Yogi Adityanath government has ensured justice for the poor Muslim families and they are solidly behind the government’’.

He said the Muslim families that were dispossessed of their property when Azam Khan was minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government had now gathered the courage to file complaints with the police.  

Tripathi said during the SP regime, in flagrant violation of the law of the land, Azam Khan had encroached on private and public land with impunity.

The BJP state spokesman said poor Muslim widows like Shazadi Begum were presently starving. “When the poor Muslims of Rampur raised their voice against the terror unleashed by Azam Khan and his henchmen, they were booked in false cases and tortured in police stations and justice was denied to them during the Akhilesh Yadav regime, the BJP state spokesman charged.

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