Less than 24 hours after Sonia Gandhi had a meeting with Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari of Jama Masjid to convince him that the “secular vote” must not split, powerful dissenting voices are coming out of the highly revered Jama Masjid and from within the Bukhari family itself.
Though the Shahi Imam has constituted a 10-member committee to look into the various aspects of the issue, it is widely expected that he will make a statement on Friday (4 April) supporting the ruling Congress party.
But now a spanner in the works has come from his younger brother, Syed Yahya Bukhari, who is the president of the Jama Masjid United Forum. In an exclusive chat with Firstpost, Yahya Bukhari blasted Sonia Gandhi’s appeal to the Imam and was highly critical of his own brother, the Shahi Imam, for having gone to the Congress president’s doorsteps offering promises to a party which has only betrayed the trust reposed by Muslims.
Sonia Gandhi. AFP.
“Mai iss faisle ki sakht mukhalfat karta hun. Bhai ka faisla hai, bhai hun, pur mai iss faisle ko galat tahrata hun. Yeh sarasar galat hai aur mai iski har tarah se mukhalfat karta hun (The decision to support Congress is highly objectionable. Though it is a decision taken by my brother, my elder brother, but even then I strongly oppose it and will continue to oppose it at all forums)”, Yahya Bukhari said.
The younger Bukhari is at a loss to understand how, after one meeting with Sonia Gandhi, his brother could make such an about turn from what has been preached from Jama Masjid over the years. However, what effect the younger Bukhari’s challenge of the Shahi Imam’s diktat will have for the Muslim community as a whole remains to be seen.
Besides a turf war issue, the issue also concerns the family honour of the Bukharis, whose ancestry is traced directly Prophet Muhammad. Their forefather Syed Abdul Ghafoor Shah Bukhari was sent here by Shah of Bukhari in Samarkand on request of the then Mughal emperor Shahjahan.
Never before, my father Syed Abdulla Bukhari or anyone from my illustrious family or in history of Jama Masjid has had gone to see a political leader at his or her residence when they are calling for votes.
“No body ever walked into doorsteps of a leader, howsoever, mighty that leader might have been. Indira Gandhi, Charan Singh, VP Singh and a host of other leaders they all had come to Jama Masjid to seek support. But my brother suddenly decides to meet Sonia Gandhi on his own, go to her place and pledge his support. I can’t imagine what prompted him but by doing so he has certainly not glorified the prestige of Jama Masjid. He has in fact damaged the honour of Jama Masjid”, Yahya Bukhari said.
Relations between the Gandhi family and the Bukharis had soured after Sanjay Gandhi’s actions towards the community and happenings at Turkman Gate during the Emergency. In 1979, India Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi had gone to Jama Masjid and said sorry to then Sahi Imam Abdulla Bukhari. Indira Gandhi had also written a letter to the Imam, promising all issues raised by him would be addressed by Congress.
Thirty five years after that famous meeting between Indira and Abdulla Bukhari, Sonia and Ahmad Bukhari met on Tuesday. Much was expected out of that meeting and it has been the most hotly debated issue among a concerned section of the Muslim community. The Congress desperately needs Muslim votes to contain Modi’s juggernaut.
On Sonia Gandhi’s reported claim to Ahmad Bukhari that one of the main reasons of her entering into politics was to “safeguard and protect secularism”
Meeting with Sonia: Congress can’t be trusted, says Shahi Imam’s brother
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