[Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan showing his letter written to the UN, during a press conference in Lucknow on Monday, October 5, 2015. (Press Trust of India photo)]
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Minister Mohammad Azam Khan on Monday sent a letter to the United Nations seeking intervention to contain targeting of Muslims in India. In his five-paged letter, Azam has asked the UN to impress upon the Modi government safeguard the secular credentials of the country.
A fuming BJP, slammed the unprecedented move by the senior minister in the Samajwadi Party govertnment in Uttar Pradesh saying it would have been "prudent" that the minister first spoke on the issue to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav before taking it to international fora.
Showing the copy of the letter to the media, Azam Khan said that the BJP and its affiliates want to turn India into a Hindu state.
Citing the lynching of a Muslim man following rumours that he ate beef in Uttar Pradesh's Dadri area, Khan said he was disturbed by a series of incidents against minorities and would urge the UN to take up the matter with the Indian government.
"Sanyukt Rashtra bahut bade thekedaar bante hain, to ab dekhte hain wo kya karte hain (UN behaves like a major protector, let us see what they do)," he said.
Alleging that the RSS had "made up its mind to burn Uttar Pradesh and make India a Hindu Rashtra", the minority affairs minister said the pro-Hindu group had let lose its "pink volunteers" for this purpose.
"Our Prime Minister has reached out to the world leaders assuring them that India will always remain secular and plural but on the ground, provides tacit support to RSS and its affiliates to intimidate minorities to convert India into Hindu nation by 2022-23," Azam Khan said in his letter.
He said there was no way that 18 percent Muslims in the country could foil any such attempt.
Khan also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the issue and tell Muslims if or not they will have any rights in the future and also if they will be allowed to stay on in India or not?
At the same time, Khan urged people to target five-star hotels serving beef..."just as you razed the Babri mosque".
On September 28, 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq, a resident of Bisara village of Dadri in Greater Noida near Delhi, is dragged out of his home and lynched following rumours that he ate beef. The family has denied the allegations saying they only ate mutton.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's state unit took offence to Khan's statements saying he was adding fuel to the communal fire.
"The Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh has failed to contain such incidents and was now trying to shirk its responsibility", Bharatiya Janata Party's state spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
"Azam Khan is only interested in gaining political brownie points out of an unfortunate incident," Pathak said.
He said maintenance of law and order was a state subject and that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his Samajwadi Party should explain why such an incident took place.
There have been many incidents in the state which would not have spiralled into big issues if the administration had intervened at the right time, the BJP leader said.
He said prohibitory orders were being violated in Dadri village where a mob lynched a Muslim man over rumours of eating beef.
The BJP spokesman said that in Muzaffaranagar in 2013, police had failed to act on time, and when they acted the action was biased, which led to violence that left 63 people dead and thousands displaced.
"This government continues to be in denial mode and is now trying to master the art of diversion. Sadly, the people of the state are not seeing through their political games," he said.
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