Syed Hussain, BJP's Muslim Ally

[Guest guest]

Mobbed after namaz, Hussain defends Vajpayee

SHARAD GUPTA

 

NEW DELHI, DEC 8: Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee's utterances on the

Ram temple in Ayodhya at the residence of the lone Muslim member in

his Cabinet, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, have got the latter into

trouble. When Hussain went to offer Friday prayers at a mosque near

Parliament House this afternoon, he was berated by several fellow

Muslims.

A crowd of 150-odd devouts raised slogans ``Vajayee-Shahnawaz

murdabad'' as they spotted Hussain in their midst after the prayers.

They also demanded his resignation from the ``communal Government'',

a witness said.

A young zealot asked the Minister to make a choice between his qaum

(community) and sarkar (Government). Another asked him the reason for

his silence on Vajpayee's assertion that the Ayodhya movement was an

expression of national sentiment and that the Babri mosque should be

rebuilt outside Ayodhya. ``If you are a true Muslim, you should

resign from the Cabinet,'' he told Hussain.

And more was in store for him as telephone calls throughout the day

questioned his loyalty to the BJP. ``I am completely distraught. I

have been explaining to everyone that the Prime Minister did not mean

what the opposition and the media is making it out to be,'' he told

The Indian Express.

If he was excited yesterday -- what with top politicians of almost

every party and a number of Muslim clergies trooping to his Iftaar

party -- he looked completely shattered today. Besides a battery of

Union Ministers and BJP leaders, those attending the iftaar party

included Vice-President Krishna Kant, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi,

former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam

Singh Yadav, Shahi Imam of Fatehpuri Mosque and clergies from

Nizamuddin Dargarh and Ajmer Sharif.

The 29-year-old Hussain has been with the BJP since he was a child.

Hailing from Kishanganj (Bihar) -- where 75 per cent of the

population comprises Muslims -- he narrowly lost to former Union

minister Mohd Taslimuddin in 1998, but made it to Parliament last

year. ``He is sure to have lost at least 50 per cent of his support

base among Muslims in Kishanganj,'' says a supporter of Hussain.

However, he still stoutly defends the Prime Minister. ``I am clear in

my mind that the BJP is not an enemy of Muslims and nobody can

question Vajpayee's intentions since he is their best well-wisher.

But it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince the agitated

community,'' he said.

He also ruled out either quitting the BJP or resigning from the

Government on the issue. His logic is simple: he quotes Vajpayee as

having told him that the BJP would honour the court verdict on the

issue.

In a bid to save his party, Hussain trained his guns on the Congress.

``Did any of the Muslim ministers in the Narasimha Rao Cabinet resign

after Babri mosque was razed? Did Rao himself resign? Especially

since the debris of the mosque was cleared after imposition of the

President's Rule in UP,'' he asked.

2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.