Speaks about construction of a mosque at disputed Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bukkal Nawab created a flutter in a party meeting by speaking about construction of a mosque at the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya, forcing the organisers to ask him to get down from the dais.
The incident happened at a State working committee meeting of BJP minority cell in Lucknow that was chaired by Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Addressing the gathering, MLC Bukkal Nawab asked whether they would favour the construction of a mosque at Ram Janmabhoomi complex (RJB) and offer namaz if a mosque was built there.
The query drew sharp reaction from those present as they believed that Nawab was advocating construction of a mosque instead of a Ram temple at the RJB complex.
Realising that the situation had spiralled out of his hand, Bukkal Nawab said: “Aap meri baat samajh hee nahi paaye hain. What I want to say is that offering prayer at any controversial place is haram in Islam.”
But his clarification failed to placate those present, forcing Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was presiding over the meeting, to ask Nawab to get down from the dais and sit with the audience.
Earlier a Samajwadi Party MLC, Bukkal Nawab joined the BJP before the 2017 Assembly election. He resigned from the Vidhan Parishad, vacating his seat for BJP ministers. Later, he was made an MLC from the BJP quota.
In his address, Naqvi attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi, saying that he lacked political acumen to lead the country.
“Rahul Gandhi reads out prepared speeches and says what his people ask him to say without exercising his mind. He comes out with expired ideas, which people reject there and then,” he said.
Naqvi said that political parties had used Muslims as a vote bank but no one had ever worked for their development.
“Only the BJP has thought about the prevailing ills in the system and has worked to eliminate them. Triple talaq is one of them. It is only the BJP which understood the agony of Muslim women, who were given talaq in one go through text or WhatsApp messages,” he said.
Naqvi asked party workers to dispel the fear of BJP among Muslims by educating them about the policies of the party.