To counter UCC ‘misconceptions’, BJP-linked Muslim ‘Pasmanda’ body holds first meet, challenges AIMPLB

The Rashtravadi Muslim Pasmanda Mahaz’s meeting was attended by several senior BJP leaders and UP Ministers. The convention’s chief guest was the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) chairperson, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, who is a member of the BJP’s Central Parliamentary Board as well as its Central Election Committee. Also in attendance on the stage were UP Minister of State for Minorities Affairs Danish Azad Ansari, MoS Agriculture Baldev Singh Aulakh, and the BJP’s member in UP Legislative Council Vidya Sagar Sonkar.

The banner put up on the stage had photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and UP BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary along with those of Lalpura, Danish and Sonkar.

Lalpura told the gathering that the Muslim community does not need to fear the UCC and that “PM Modi takes care of everyone”.

In his speech, the Mahaz president, Atif Rashid, who is affiliated to the BJP, challenged “Ashraf” (upper caste) members of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) for a debate on the UCC. He said his organisation’s activists would meet the AIMPLB members to appeal to them that they should not “mislead” Pasmanda Muslims over the UCC. Rashid said that the objective of the UCC proposal is to give equal rights to every woman and that it would not change the ways of prayers, culture or lifestyle of people.

The UP in-charge of the Mahaz, Faisal Mansoori, said that leaders like AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and many Muslim clerics and AIMPLB members were spreading “misconceptions” in the Muslim community about the UCC without reading it.

“A resolution was passed at the convention that the UCC is in the interest of the Muslim community,” Mansoori said, claiming that such conventions would be organised in Delhi, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal, Haryana, Punjab and Hyderabad in the coming days.

Mansoori claimed that the BJP did not ask the Mahaz to organise such a convention, with the Lucknow event being the first held by the outfit on the UCC issue. “But this is a fact that the BJP is giving representation to Muslims in the government, Commissions and other institutions. BJP has two Pasmanda Muslims as MLCs in UP. It is giving too much to the community even when it is not getting their votes. If the community votes for the BJP, the party will give them tickets in elections,” he said.

BJP leader Sonkar said the Mahaz has been associated with the BJP. “UCC should be implemented in the country. Misconceptions are being created that UCC will affect their ways of prayers,” he said.

Sonkar claimed that Muslims with “progressive ideology” were getting associated with the BJP and that the community’s Pasmanda section has “come forward in this direction”.