– Mohammed Atherulla Shariff
Bangaluru, 26 Sep: Strongly refuting the charges of Janata Dal(S) leader Kumar Swamy, his one-time close associate and housing minister in the present Congress government Zameer Ahmed Khan has termed Kumar Swamy as ungrateful. Had the Muslims not supported, JD(S) would have been reduced to single digit in the last assembly elections, Mr. Khan said.
Earlier, speaking to Deccan Herald, Mr. HD Kumar Swamy, the leader of JD(S) legislature party and two-time chief minister of Karnataka, claimed that Muslims had not supported them despite his father HD Deve Gowda giving them 4% reservation. He had further charged that whenever there were incidents against Muslims and the Congress was silent, it was he who stood with them. What did they give us in return, he has questioned.
Naming him in particular, Mr. Zameer Ahmed Khan said that without Muslims’ support it would have been difficult even for Kumar Swamy to win from Channapatna. Elaborating his claim, Mr. Khan listed out the victory of Kumar Swamy’s brother HD Revenna from Hole Narsipur, Krishnappa from Turvikere, Suresh Babu from Chiknayakana Halli, Nagen Gowda from Gurmitkal, Kariamma from Devdurg and Bal Krishna from Chanrayapatna was all due to the support of Muslims, he said.
Taking the bull by horn, Mr. Khan asked Kumar Swamy to declare openly along with his party legislators that they got elected without Muslims’ support. Mr. Khan alleged that since JD(S) got only 19 seats in the last assembly elections and Kumar Swamy was deprived of the chance of being kingmaker this time, he is cluttered, Mr. Khan said.
Mass exodus awaited
Meanwhile, the Muslim leaders in JD(S) have raised strong objection to the new alliance with BJP and have threatened to leave the party en masse in protest.
Speaking to Radiance, Mr. Syed Shafiulla, who resigned from the vice-president post and primary membership of JD(S) in protest against the new alliance, said that his resignation has not been accepted but there is no word from the party leadership either. Similar is the response to the resignation of Mr. N.M. Nabi, the working president of the party and former state minister, Shafiulla added. He further said earlier also when the party had decided to join hands with BJP to form the government, Muslims in the party had shown strong resentment and started to quit. But then the party supremo Mr. Deve Gowda had called a meeting of all the Muslim members and pleaded with folded hands to pardon him and had requested them not to leave the party.
But this time the ‘come what may’ type decision of Janata Dal(S) to ally with BJP seems to have made the leadership unmoved with the resentment of Muslim partymen. Rather the contribution of Muslims to the party is being questioned now.
Consequently, senior Muslim leaders in the party held a meeting in Bangalore on Sunday. Along with Mr. Shafiulla, the state general secretary Mohit Altaf, Nasir Husain Ustad, party spokesperson Noor Ahmed and NM Nabi and all the representatives from across the state who attended the meet were unanimous in opposing to the new alliance.
According to them, there are around three lakhs active workers from the community in the party. About thirty thousand of them are representatives at district, taluka and gram panchayat levels. It has been decided to hold a larger meeting early in October and decide about future course of action.
However, two prominent leaders Mr. C.M. Ibrahim, the present state president of the party and Mr. B.M. Farooq, MLC, were not present in the meeting and have not expressed their stand till now.
