JEDDAH — Fareed Mahfooz Kidwai, minister of state for planning in the UP government, believes it is the politics of necessity that has held back Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party supremo, from taking Congress to task on the non-implementation of the Sachar Committee report's recommendations. “I don't know what problem the Central government has in implementing the recommendations (Sachar's) regarding the upliftment of Muslim minority,” he said in a recent interview to the Saudi Gazette here. “Since the Congress government has taken no concrete steps in this regard, Mulayam Singh should take a no nonsense approach in dealing with Congress. But it is a tricky political situation. The support to UPA government is to some extent Mulayam's compulsion. “I had always doubted Congress' move because this party is solely responsible for Muslims' miserable economic, educational and almost all their problems. “The withdrawal of SP support to Congress at the federal level means paving the way for Bharatiya Janata Party. Mulayam can pressurize the government, but this possibility could play out. The Sachar Committee has revealed the true face of the Congress,” the minister said. He, however, assured that Mulayam would keep his promise to talk to the Prime Minister regarding the report and would raise the issue in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) for not implementing its recommendations. He added, “Akhilesh (the UP state chief minister and Mulayam's son) has formed a six-member panel for the implementation of Sachar Committee's recommendation, reservation in the government services and in the educational institutions. The Muslim population in UP state is 18 percent. So if the reservation is accorded according to the ratio of the Muslim population then it can be challenged in the High Court or the Supreme Court, and the government has these considerations too while seeking reservations for UP Muslims.” He welcomed the resignations of Pawan Bansal, the railway minister, and Ashwini Kumar, the law minister, for corruption and unlawful behavior and the so-called ‘coalgate' cases. “It seems with the Parliamentary elections fast approaching has compelled central government for this step. The Supreme Court's judgment and its comments regarding CBI were also the major reason for Ashwini Kumar's resignation.” According to Kidwai, “some tapes, that the CBI got, show Bansal's involvement in the railway promotion scandal.” Regarding innocent Muslims languishing in jails on charges of terrorism and (against whom) no charge sheet has been filed, Kidwai said he had talked to Akhilesh Yadav personally about Tariq Qasimi and Khalid Mujahid. “Everybody knows that Tariq was arrested on false charges in Azam Garh but it is being shown that at the time of arrest he was in Barabanki. Akhilesh's government has ordered them free but the judge overseeing the matter has refused to set them free. The attitude of people, after hearing the judge's order, shows polarized opinions and increased communal mentality that have taken root due to the BJP's agenda. Samajwadi Party, in its election manifesto, had promised to provide justice in such cases but there are legal complications and intricacies that cause delay,” he said. “It's Akhilesh's beyond doubt secular character and his zeal to provide justice and security to UP Muslims makes me optimistic,” he added. “The murder case of the Kunda, Pratap Garh DSP Ziyaul Haq was dealt by Akhilesh government forcefully and on time. To secure justice for the families of the murdered and affected ones from this incident the case was assigned to CBI. Parveen Azad, late Ziyaul Haq's widow, and Haq's brother have been placed in government services,” Fareed Mahfooz said. He assured that any culprit in the case whatever his status will not be spared. He said, his party took a firm and timely decision and Raja Bhaiya (Raghu Raj Pratap Singh) whose involvement was suspected in these murders by Ziyaul Haq's widow Parveen Azad, was kicked out of the UP government's Cabinet. BJP senior leader Lal Ji Tandon's offer of an assembly seat to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi “was a forced courtesy”; this would have been under the pressure of BJP's stalwarts otherwise Tandon would like his son to contest from this seat, he said. “The results of the Karnataka elections have cut Modi to size,” he opined. “The insulting behavior of American immigration officials with Azam Khan, the senior Cabinet minister in the UP's government at Boston Airport is not new. This is an old practice to humiliate Indians and Muslims. They had a body search of our former President APJ Abdulkalam and they almost stripped George Fernandes, a senior Indian minister, in another strip search. UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Singh and Azam Khan have boycotted Harvard University's speech and the function to register their protest and anger for this humiliation,” he said. He liked Azam Khan's idea that Khadimul Hajjaj should be a person well-versed in Haj rituals and Arabic language. The government is insisting that only government employees can be Khadimul Hajjaj. Due to the differences with the government in this regard the UP's 32, 214 pilgrims will perform Haj this year too without competent Khadimul Hajjaj. He hoped for the emergence of a third front after next parliamentary elections and saw Mulayam Singh as the future prime minister of the largest democracy of the world due to his secular and clean image. For this Samajwadi has to win at least 70 seats out of 83 parliamentary in UP. “For it we need public support,” he said.
