India News | NDA in Bihar Slams Madani, a Day After He Targeted Modi, Nitish

Patna, Nov 25 (PTI) The ruling NDA in Bihar on Monday slammed Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Arshad Madani over his statement against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the Waqf Bill issue.

Madani had delivered a speech here a day ago when the Islamic organisation had held a "Save Constitution and National Solidarity Conference".

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Reacting to his remark that Nitish Kumar might lose the support of Muslims if his JD(U) did not oppose the Waqf Bill, the leader's close aide Ashok Choudhary said, "We are not bothered about Madani, or for that matter any Moulvi, Pandit or Shankaracharya. Our leader works for the people and seeks their votes on his performance as a chief minister. He needs no intermediaries between himself and the public".

The JD(U) national general secretary, who is also a state minister, rejected Madani's charge that the CM's inability to attend the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind function was linked to the party's alleged equivocal stand on the Waqf issue.

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Choudhary said, "Our leader attends functions of minority organisations without any reservation. He may not have turned up at Madani's function because of prior commitments. I also doubt whether Madani extended him a proper invitation."

The JD(U) leader also defended the party's former national president and Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh "Lalan" over "Muslims do not vote for us" remark, saying "nobody can deny that Nitish Kumar has done more for the community than anyone else".

"Even Muslim chief ministers cannot match the generosity of our leader towards the minority community. Lalan has rightly pointed out that Muslims' support to JD(U) has not been commensurate. It adversely affects the morale," he added.

When state BJP president Dilip Jaiswal's attention was drawn towards Madani's remark, he likened the Islamic scholar to AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and alleged, "They are full of negativity. They can criticize but offer no constructive suggestions."

Jaiswal, who is also a state minister, added: "We believe in Narendra Modi's motto of sabka saath sabka vikas" and, to a pointed query on Waqf Bill, gave a cryptic reply: "Be it temples or mosques, these owe their existence to the nation. So these must also be willing to give something back".

Criticising PM Modi's "no place for Wakf law in the Constitution" comment, Madani had on Sunday said that it may be said tomorrow that Muslims would not be allowed to offer namaz, go for Haj pilgrimage and give away zakat (alms) since these too find no mention in the Constitution.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)