Senior Congress leader Shakil Ahmed Khan on Sunday voiced disapproval of Muslim bodies announcing a “boycott” of ‘Iftaar’ parties hosted by NDA partners like Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union minister Chirag Paswan.
Khan, who is the leader of the Congress legislature party in Bihar, expressed his views in a video shared on his Facebook page, without mentioning any Islamic body or political figure by name.
The Congress leader, talking to PTI over phone, said “politics and festivities should be kept separate. Even if one needs to skip a function because of differences with the host, the decision must be taken by individuals concerned. There must not be a boycott call from organisations”.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani has declared that the organisation will stay away from ‘Iftaar’, ‘Eid Milan’ and other such functions hosted by Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), his Andhra Pradesh counterpart and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and Chirag Paswan, the founding president of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
Madani claimed it was a “symbolic protest” against the NDA leaders’ “silence” over the Waqf Bill brought in by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
Another Muslim organisation, Imarat Shariah, headquartered in Patna, has also announced that it was turning down the invitation for the “sarkaari” (government) ‘Iftaar’ of Nitish Kumar, whom it accused of “supporting” the Bill that could “make worse the economic and educational backwardness” of the community.
While the CM or his party is yet to react, Paswan has voiced protest, citing the example of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan who had famously pushed for a “Muslim chief minister” decades ago.