The state BJP is pleasantly surprised at the response it has received from the Muslims on issues like Wakf Board land-grabbing and Sachar panel report.
“For the first time in the history of the party, state president Nitin Gadkari, national general secretary Gopinath Munde, legislature wing leader Eknath Khadse and MLC Pasha Patel have been invited by the Muslim leaders to address a gathering at Aurangabad’s Jama Masjid on September 7,” disclosed state BJP spokesman Madhav Bhandari.
The meeting is being organised by Maulana Farooqi of the Wakf Bachao Committee in Aurangabad on Friday afternoon. Besides Gadkari, Munde and Khadse will be addressing the gathering.
Speaking to DNA on Monday, Bhandari clarified that the meeting has been convened by the minority community organisations, and not by the party. He said that the issues of Wakf Board lands being grabbed by those in power, the abject poverty of Muslims in rural areas and the recommendations of the Sachar panel report are now the most talked-about issues within the community even at the village-level.
BJP MLC Syed Pasha Patel has already embarked on a state-wide tour, addressing rallies and minority community conclaves. “For the past three months, I have been working towards addressing to the core issues affecting the community. I will now be touring Vidarbha and Marathwada regions and address rallies on these issues,” stated Patel.
The booklet brought out in Urdu on the Wakf Board land grabbing scam has also evoked encouraging response from the community, with 10,000 copies of the booklet being taken by the community leaders. However, Bhandari argues that the party has not done anything spectacular by raising the issues. “It is the community itself which is now coming to terms with the way the Congress has been cheating them over the last six decades,” he added.
Earlier, the BJP had brought out a booklet in Urdu that explained the irregularities in the Wakf land sales. Though aimed at exposing the role of state Congress leaders in the scam, the booklet impressed the minority leaders as it gave a low down on the Wakf controversy.
