Need to quit on deal, says Minister Ahamed, Sonia says we shall talk

New Delhi, July 11: The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader and Minister of State for External Affairs, E Ahamed, has apparently told UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi that he has no other option but to resign from the Government given the “anti-nuclear deal feeling among the Muslim community” in his home state, Kerala, but has assured her that his party would extend its support to the UPA Government.

The UPA chairperson has sought a “personal meeting” with Ahamed and is understood to have told Ahamed that the Government will do “everything possible” to allay his party’s fears. She also has told Ahamed that the “Congress party is quite sensitive to the sentiments of the Muslim community” and would ask her party unit in Kerala to work in tandem with the IUML to allay such fears.

The IUML is the Congress’s party’s oldest ally. The “personal meeting” between Sonia Gandhi and Ahamed may take place in a day or two, sources said.

The National Executive of the IUML held yesterday in Kerala took a decision to withdraw its representative from the Cabinet. “The unilateral view of the executive meeting was to withdraw our representative from the Government but to continue our support to the Government,” IUML state secretary E T Mohammed Basheer told The Indian Express.

“We will continue to support the Government as we have no problem with the Government but for the nuclear deal. But it is a fact that the Muslim sentiments in the state are totally against the deal. And we are in no position to ignore the community sentiment,” Basheer said. Party chief Panakkad Syed Muhammadali Shihab Thangal will take a final decision on Ahamed.

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