Known for his foot in mouth disease, Minority Affairs minister Azam Khan issued a controversial statement on Dr BR Ambedkar linking him with land grabbing and in the process created a storm. Khan made the statement in the presence of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in Ghaziabad where they had gone for the inauguration of Haj House.
``The entire state is dotted with the statue of one person. The raised finger of the statue indicate that the vacant plot in front is his and the rest of the land is also his,’’ said Khan.
The minister also defended a Muslim cleric of Bijnore who was accused of rape. Khan slammed the media for unleashing a `slander campaign’ against the Muslim religious leader.
The video of the cleric in a compromising position with a woman had gone viral on social media. After six days, the police booked the Imam of Jama Masjid at Bijnore Maulana Anwarul Haq for rape on August 27. Haq had allegedly been raping the 30-year-old woman on the pretext of ‘rescuing her from evil spirits’.
The Maulana had earlier been in news when he announced a reward of Rs 51 lakh on Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari, who had issued objectionable remarks against Prophet Muhammad in December last year.
In August, the SP government drewn criticism from all quarters after Azam Khan termed the gang rape of a woman and her daughter on the national highway in Bulandsahahar as a ‘political conspiracy’ to malign the state government ahead of the Assembly polls. The victims’ family had petitioned Supreme Court against the highly insensitive statement of Khan after which the Apex court issued notice to the state government.