Senior Samajwadi Party leader and MlC Bhukkal Nawab created a flutter on Friday when he supported construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and even announced that he would donate Rs 10 lakh and a gold crown for the idol of lord Ram.
“I am a Muslim but I respect lord Ram a lot. I want a Ram mandir to be constructed in Ayodhya”, he told reporters and promised to donate the money and the crown when the construction of the temple begins.
The SP leader, however, clarified that this was his personal view. “This is my wish. Don’t think of it as a politically-motivated statement as it has nothing to do with the Samajwadi Party,” he said.
Reacting to Nawab’s remarks, Uttar Pradesh Congress media committee chairman Satyadeo Tripathi said that statements of the SP lawmaker show the tacit understanding between the ruling party and the BJP. “This is a common practice for both the parties to raise sensitive issues concerning Hindus and Muslims when elections are round the corner. Both
the parties try to foment communal trouble and vitiate peace,” he said.
The SP, on the other hand, has taken Nawab’s statement with a pinch of salt, saying that the leader did not say that the Ram temple would be constructed at the disputed site.
“We also support the construction of the Ram temple anywhere except at the disputed site where not even a stone can be shifted without court orders,” said SP general secretary and UP PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav.
He alleged that the BJP leaders were just trying to rake up the Ram temple issue to create communal tension. “The UP Government will not allow any such effort by the communal forces to disturb peace in the State,” he told reporters here.
Yadav said BJP leaders are talking about construction of the Ram temple but are not saying when it will begin.
Nawab’s brush with controversies is not new. During the 2014 lok Sabha election campaign he reached a venue where the BJP was organising Chai pe Charcha. BJP State president laxmi Kant Bajpai was the chief guest there. When Nawab reached the venue he was offered tea and people around shouted slogans “Bhukkal Nawab aayen hai NaMo chai peene.”
Nawab, a Shia Muslim, and a descendent of Nawabs of lucknow, is considered very close to SP national president Mulayam Singh Yadav. When Mayawati was elevated to Rajya Sabha and her seat fell vacant, Nawab was made a legislator.