09-02-2006, 07:55 PM
<!--emo&:thumbsup--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbup.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbup.gif' /><!--endemo--> India not governed by Shariat: Naqvi
[ 2 Sep, 2006 1642hrs ISTPTI ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
NEW DELHI: Faced with criticism from Darul Uloom over his remarks that those who oppose Vande Mataram should leave India, senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday rejected it as an expression of separatist mindset.
"In my opinion, the clerics who regard Vande Mataram and its advocates as anti-Muslim are people of anti-national mindset," he said.
The Islamic seminary has flayed Naqvi for his remarks against Muslim clerics and advised Muslim parents not to send their children to schools enforcing the Vande Mataram directive on September 7.
"The Indian administration is governed not by Shariat but by a secular Constitution," Naqvi said in a statement here.
"Fatwas by clerics of separatist mindset cannot weaken patriotism of crores of Muslims like me," the BJP leader said.
Naqvi triggered a row with Muslim clerics opposed to compulsory singing of the national song on September 7 when he remarked that such people should rather leave India.
Meanwhile, another BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain blamed the Congress for the current controversy over the singing of Vande Mataram and said it would adversely affect national interest.
"It is a political gimmick meant to encash its vote bank. Muslims, in fact, have no grudge in singing Vande Mataram ; they have been singing it for the last 58 years. Congress has taken it in such a way so that it may get political leverage," the former union minister told reporters in Mathura on Friday night.
[ 2 Sep, 2006 1642hrs ISTPTI ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
NEW DELHI: Faced with criticism from Darul Uloom over his remarks that those who oppose Vande Mataram should leave India, senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday rejected it as an expression of separatist mindset.
"In my opinion, the clerics who regard Vande Mataram and its advocates as anti-Muslim are people of anti-national mindset," he said.
The Islamic seminary has flayed Naqvi for his remarks against Muslim clerics and advised Muslim parents not to send their children to schools enforcing the Vande Mataram directive on September 7.
"The Indian administration is governed not by Shariat but by a secular Constitution," Naqvi said in a statement here.
"Fatwas by clerics of separatist mindset cannot weaken patriotism of crores of Muslims like me," the BJP leader said.
Naqvi triggered a row with Muslim clerics opposed to compulsory singing of the national song on September 7 when he remarked that such people should rather leave India.
Meanwhile, another BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain blamed the Congress for the current controversy over the singing of Vande Mataram and said it would adversely affect national interest.
"It is a political gimmick meant to encash its vote bank. Muslims, in fact, have no grudge in singing Vande Mataram ; they have been singing it for the last 58 years. Congress has taken it in such a way so that it may get political leverage," the former union minister told reporters in Mathura on Friday night.