Shias, Sunnis reject Mayawati’s olive branch

LUCKNOW, June 23: Too little, too late -- was the reaction of the Shias and Sunnis who have already pronounced the verdict on Chief Ministe...

LUCKNOW, June 23: Too little, too late — was the reaction of the Shias and Sunnis who have already pronounced the verdict on Chief Minister Mayawati’s move today to form a two-member committee for finding a solution to their sectarian problem. With the two communities bent on taking out their disputed processions on the occasion of Chehullum on June 26, Lucknow is set to witness a confrontation.

Finding a way out of the problem is proving an uphill task. While the Shias are adamant on taking out the adari procession reciting the tabarra (which condemns three successors of Prophet Mohammad), the Sunnis are equally determined to take out the Madeh Sahaba (which hails the very three successors).

The committee set up by the Chief Minister today comprises Principal Secretary (Home) Harish Chandra Gupta and Director General of Police Ram Arun (DGP), and is supposed to submit its report within three months.

Till it does that, Mayawati has admitted, the state government has no option but to continue with the 20-year-old ban on azadari, as it cannot risk creating law and order problems in old Lucknow.

But that is not good enough for Shia and Sunni leaders. “She was given three months, but she has failed to deliver. She should have taken this step a little earlier,” says Shia leader Maulana Kalbe Jawwad.

His Sunni counterpart, Zafaryab Jilani, agrees too, though he welcomes Mayawati’s move. “With only three days to go for Chehullum, there is no time for us to withdraw our respective calls to take out Madeh Sahaba and azadari processions,” he points out. Both the Shias and Sunnis insist they will take out their processions that day despite prohibitory orders.

Muslim leaders also feel that the chief minister’s decision to appoint a committee and her appeals to them to withdraw stirs are mere eyewash.

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“See what the earlier committee comprising ministers Lalji Tandon and R K Chaudhury, formed two months ago, has done so far. Since both the DGP and Home Secretary are extremely busy, this committee too is unlikely to make much headway,” says Jilani.

The Sunni leader is unhappy with the composition of the committee too. According to him, it should have consisted of a Shia leader, a Sunni leader and a Hindu, names of whom should have been forwarded by their communities. The committee members should have been retired High Court judges or retired ICS or IAS officers, he says.

Mayawati’s charge earlier today that the leaders of the two communities had become tools in the hands of the Samajwadi Party, or more precisely Mulayam Singh Yadav, has also angered Jilani and Jawwad. “Being the chief minister, she should have used some restraint,” fumes Jilani. “How can two warring factions become tools of the same individual,” he asked.

Adds Jawwad: “If she wants to reap a harvest of votes on the dead bodies of Shia youths, she is sadly mistaken.”

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Mayawati had accused Mulayam of using the Shia-Sunni conflict to foment communal trouble in order to destabilise her government. If Mulayam was so concerned about the problem, why had he not allowed the two processions during his tenure — in 1989-90 and 1993-95 she had asked.