JEDDAH — "The UP Cabinet reshuffle is not an eyewash to appease voters. It is to correct the image of Samajwadi Party. The ministers whose performance was not up to the mark were replaced by the ones that will serve people," said Abu Asim Azmi a veteran leader of Samajwadi Party in a recent interview to Saudi Gazette. "Every responsible government pays heed to the complaints lodged against its ministers. UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's government too has taken note while believing in progress. In UP eight metro projects are going on, and, no other state in India has such a big metro project," added Azmi, who was in the Kingdom to perform Umrah with his family members. Azmi is member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and was ex-member of parliament (Rajya Sabha). He is President of Samajwadi Party Mumbai Pradesh & Maharashtra Pradesh. "In UP, during Bharatiya Janata Party rule, the Madrasa's situated at the Nepal border, were declared a haven of refuge for terrorists. Now none can dare to launch such poisonous propaganda against Islamic religious seminaries that gave birth to many great Muslim freedom fighters and Indian leaders. When Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati was chief minister, many Muslims were arrested on the false accusations of terrorism and no Muslim was allowed to speak a word regarding such atrocities in her party. During SP's 4-year rule no such arrests have been made. Now Muslims are free to raise their concern and voice," said Azmi. "Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya was asked to quit as food and civil supplies minister by Akhilesh Yadav after the Kunda MLA was named as an accused in the DSP Zia-ul-Haq's killing in the FIR lodged by Haq's wife, Parveen Azad. A CBI inquiry was set up. Only after getting a clean chit from CBI investigation Raja Bhaiya was re-appointed as minister. Akhilesh announced 2.5 million each for Haq's widow and father. Haq's younger brother was given a job in the police department. Earlier no such examples were seen to restore confidence of Muslims in such incidents," he said. "In Maharashtra, the Madrasa's that were denied government aid don't want government's conditional help to introduce subjects other than Islamic subjects. They want to concentrate on better Shariah education. They use Zakah and charity funds to help the orphans and the students that come from the families that are below poverty line. They make them good Muslims and better citizens of India. The Madrasa's which want to accept the government's conditional help are free to do it," Azmi said. He refuted the claim that SP chief is in alliance with the BJP and said, "Mulayam Singh is the same man who, as a chief minister of UP, ordered police to fire on the mob that wanted to demolish Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. In this incident 16 Hindus were killed. Muslims are the main backer of Samajwadi Party if the party loses their support, it will be finished. In this regard, the policy change will be suicidal," Azmi said. "In Maharashtra and other states our party is not in a good position. In Bihar, Mulayam paved the way for a grand alliance and helped Lalu-Nitish in patching up their differences. But he was not taken in confidence regarding seat distribution there. Due to this SP left the alliance. In UP, Congress has nothing to offer. The Bahujan Samaj Party is not ready for alliance. It had already been an ally of BJP," he said shedding light on the political scenario and the possibilities of a grand alliance in UP before 2017 assembly polls. "As I know, if Kamlesh Tiwari would have been in an Islamic country he would have got capital punishment for his blasphemous remarks. However, his remarks landed him in jail and he's been booked under NSA. He will not get bail soon. This will send a message to the people who, by their poisonous tongue try to divide innocent Indian people, who live amicably," he said. "On the false accusations of eating beef, Akhlaq Ahmad was murdered in Dadri and in this case too UP government has tried to restore the confidence of Akhlaq's family by providing big financial help. Akhlaq's son is in the army but communal forces didn't spare even his father. In fact the communal elements want to damage the reputation of Samajwadi Party in UP under their heinous agenda. In this unfortunate case Rahul Gandhi and Laloo Prasad didn't do anything except provide lip-service," Azmi said. "The SP government tried to help and has compensated the families who suffered in the Muzaffarnagar riots. The perpetrators of the Muzaffarnagar riots were charged in different cases according to their role but some people are still in the camps and demanding compensation. The government officials have surveyed each and every home and genuine victims were compensated by the Akhilesh government. In fact, taking an advantage of the situation, some greedy outsiders have gathered in these camps and are demanding compensation on different pretexts," he said. "The Muslims were not given the 18% reservation as promised earlier by our party but 20% of the development fund has been allocated for Muslims and we still want a fair share in the reservation for them," Azmi elaborated. "Urdu is the second official language of UP government but the condition of the language is not very good. The Muslims should make it their duty to help improve the state of the language by using Urdu as a medium of communication and correspondence. This will boost employment of Muslims at different levels in the government sector," he added. "I am proud of Indian expatriates living in the Kingdom. They are law-abiding, diligent and constructive work force for Saudi Arabia," Azmi said.
