NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Serious differences have arisen among leaders of Muslim organisations in the wake of the assiduous wooing of the community by the BJP in its best-ever shot at forming a government at the Centre.While one section of Muslim organisations led by Jawed Habeeb of the Quami Mushawarat Committee expressed its readiness to open a dialogue with the BJP on certain conditions, another Muslim front called for a boycott of those ``hobnobbing'' with the BJP.
Habeeb told reporters today that participants at a consultative meeting of political parties and religious leaders held on Sunday last decided to have a dialogue with the BJP provided it made its stand clear on the reconstruction of the Babri Masjid, the release of innocents detained under TADA and the preservation of the Muslim personal law.
Earlier in the day, the All India Minorities Front urged Muslims to boycott all those leaders including Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Abdullah Bukhari and Habeeb.
``It is most unfortunate that the
so-called Muslim leaders, raising the bogey of the Babri Masjid and projecting themselves as saviours, are shaking hands with those who were responsible for the demolition of the mosque,'' Front president S M Asif said. Similar sentiments have also been expressed by former MP Syed Shahabuddin of the Insaf Morcha. Reacting to the moves being made by some organisations in the BJP's favour, he launched a scathing attack on Habeeb. He said that this ``group of 10 or 12 individuals'' heading ``paper organisations'' had no roots whatsoever.
``Jawed Habeeb is the most discredited member of the Babri Masjid movement. In fact he has nothing to do with the movement since 1992 and has always been in the lap of successive prime ministers. His confabulations with some religious leaders will have no impact at all,'' he told The Indian Express.Answering the criticism, Habeeb described Shahabuddin as a ``frustrated individual'' whose Insaf Morcha was a ``one-man show.'' ``Let him say how many members does his organisationhave,'' he remarked.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
