Muslim players in Team India are from Gujarat: Advani

Sunday March 27, 2011 07:49:52 PM, IANS

New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani said Sunday that the three Muslim players in the Indian World Cup team have a Gujarat connection and that they are there because of their talent, not because of any reservations.

In the latest post on his blog, Advani referred to speech of his party colleague Shahnawaz Hussain during debate in the Lok Sabha on the condition of Muslims in the country.

"In his speech, Shahnawaz Hussain said 'the World Cup cricket tournament is going on these days. The eleven players in Team India include Zahir Khan, Munaaf Patel and Yusuf Pathan. Three out of eleven makes it 30.6 percent. And this is on the basis of their talent, not on the basis of any reservation'. Incidentally, all these three players are from Gujarat!", Advani said.

While Munaaf Patel and Yusuf Patel hail from Gujarat, Zaheer Khan has represented Baroda in domestic cricket tournaments.

Advani said that Hussain's "excellent speech" cited numerous statistics contrasting the prosperity of Muslims in the BJP-ruled Gujarat with the problems of Muslims elsewhere in the country.

"I understand that when Shahnawaz went for his Friday namaz at the Kasturba Gandhi Marg Mosque, the imam publicly complimented him for his speech and described it as an 'eye-opener'", Advani remarked in his blog.

Referring to the budget session of the parliament that concluded Friday ahead of its original schedule, he said the decision to abandon the examination of demands of grants for various ministries by the parliamentary standing committees "was a big loss".

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Picture of the Day

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in a meeting with the Imam-e-Haram, Makkahtul Mukerrema, Fazilatus Shaikh Dr. Abdur Rahman Abdul Aziz al Sudais, in New Delhi on March 24, 2011. Dr Sudais is in India on a historic three day visit.

(Photo: Shivraj