‘Ajmal is making a Robinhood of himself with zakat funds from across the world’

GUWAHATI: BJP Minority Morcha national president Jamal Siddiqui trained gun on All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal saying he was making a Robinhood of himself with funds raised as zakat (charity) from across the world.

“The Maulana is a maulana in Assam and a prodigal man in Mumbai. He lives in Mumbai and I also live there. I know him inside out. He is making a Robinhood of himself in Assam by using funds raised from zakat. He is bringing disrepute to the country in the process.

“India is no longer a country that needs charity from anywhere. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led us to such a position that India now donates to other countries. For instance, India has not only produced COVID-19 vaccine for ourselves, India is also helping other countries overcome the pandemic by donating vaccines,” Siddique said.

Zakat is a charity that the wealthy Muslims donate to the needy, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

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He also assured that the BJP would now take care of the minority communities in Assam as well and they would not have to bank on Ajmal’s charity anymore. “The Maulana is actually a creation of people’s ignorance and illiteracy. The minority people here have been kept illiterate over the past seven decades. And, now when these people fall ill, they run to the Maulana who uses charity money from across the world to donate for their treatment,” he said.

“He doesn’t have to bother about the people any more. The government will take care of the people,” Siddiqui added.

This is the second time the minority leader, who is often hailed for his Samaritan exercises cutting across religious lines, has come under attack from the BJP regarding funds he use for charity work in Assam. Earlier, state’s senior cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had alleged that he was reportedly using fundamentalist funds to open schools and run coaching programmes to produce civil service officers from Assam.

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Asked if the Congress-AIUDF alliance was going to affect the BJP’s prospects, Siddiqui said: “It’s not gathbandhan (alliance), it’s a thugbandhan (cheating mechanism). Two thieves have come together scared of the BJP. It’s not at all going to affect us.”

Pointed out that some of the senior BJP leaders in Assam have stated that the BJP does not need ‘Miyan’ votes to win elections in Assam, Siddiqui said: “Those were misrepresentations by a section of the subscribers to the Maulana’s ideologies to create a divide between the people. The Muslim population have now started understanding the BJP and I am happy that many conscious ones have started supporting the party.”

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Sarma had repeatedly said that the BJP does not need Miyan votes and the BJP in Assam has already polarized the Assam voters in the 65:35 ratio of Hindu and Muslims.

At a time when Siddiqui was going full blast against Ajmal, a journalist’s question about the BJP’s alliance with the AIUDF in some of the zilla parishads of Assam caught him off guard. “I am not aware about it, The local leaders will be able to tell you,” he said.