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Journalism of Courage
LUCKNOW, JAN 2: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh’s efforts to win over the Muslim community in Kanpur boomeranged when he did not make the much-awaited announcement about the repeal of the UP Religious Places Worship Bill, despite reported assurances by his supporters to that effect.
“I will be left with no option but to resign if the government does notreact to the demand to nullify the Bill within a fortnight,” said Irshad Mirza, Minority Commission chairman, who did the spade work for the Muslim meet at the Circuit House in Kanpur.
The CM on his part, however, tried to come clean saying he did not believe in making false promises and also assured Muslims that they should not be fearful of the Bill as it contained nothing objectionable for thecommunity.
“Rumours have been spread that the Bill bans offering namaz at their homes. You should not heed to such rumours,” he told the meeting.
The assurance did not cut much ice with the Muslims who claimed that they came only on the assurance that it would be repealed. “We have been befooled. Had we known that no announcement was going to be made we would have not come,” said Dr Naeem Hamid, a doctor in Chamanganj area of Kanpur.
Among the disappointed faces among those who had congregated at the meeting was also the Shahr Quazi, Kari Abdul Sami.
Mirza, however, was at his wits end and claimed that he had been assured that the CM would make an announcement repealing the Bill at the meeting today. “I was told in the morning today that due to some technical hang-ups the government cannot make the announcement at present,” he told mediapersons.
The government had introduced the controversial bill last year amidst protests from the minority community. The Bill put a strict ban on any construction at religious sites while the Muslims alleged it was a move on the BJP government’s part to impose checks on their right to worship.
