Don't use Islam to justify Durga Nagpal suspension, say UP Muslims

Akhilesh Yadav’s lofty claims that his government’s decision to suspend IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal had nothing to do with the sand mafia, and was instead motivated by a desire to preserve communal harmony and prevent the outbreak of riots, is finding no takers. Not even among the Muslims. “If the communal harmony in the state is going to be affected, we have to take action,” UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Lucknow. He added that a Muslim family had built a wall which had been demolished due to the orders of the IAS official, “which was not fair”. However this statement fell flat from the get go, as the Gautum Budh Nagar police in the area insisted that there was no communal tension as claimed by the government, and the district magistrate said that Nagpal had acted in accordance with the law. And now, Muslim groups in the state have added their voices to the outrage around Nagpal’s suspension and asked the UP government not to use Islam as a shield for the sand mafia. [caption id=“attachment_1000389” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The UP muslims call our Akhilesh Yadav’s defense. Ibnlive[/caption] “It is wrong to use Islam and a mosque as a shield for doing this. There is a clear attempt at implicating the Muslim community in this issue”, an Economic Times report quoted Salim Engineer, the national secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind as saying. It also quoted the President of the Rashtriya Ulama Council National, Aamir Rashadi Madni as saying that the ‘demolition of the wall was as per the lekhpal’s report and the SP government is trying to make it into a Muslim issue” The WAQF board has also said that it will write to Sonia Gandhi on the issue and ask for Nagpal to be reinstated. They have also said that she Whether this latest blow to its claims will have any impact on the Samajwadi Party however is debatable. The party has so far responded to all criticism of its decision with stubbornness and arrogance. Naresh Aggarwal responded to a letter by Sonia Gandhi to the Prime Minister asking him to ensure Nagpal was treated fairly, by saying that she needed to also write to him about Ashok Khemka and Robert Vadra. Later the party almost sullenly declared that it would not support the food security bill when it came up for discussion in Parliament. Later his brother, Ram Gopal Yadav made a statement saying that the state government could run Uttar Pradesh without any IAS officers, asking the centre to recall the lot of them. “If the Centre intervenes in the suspension of Durga Shakti Nagpal, then the UP government will write to it saying the state does not need the services of IAS officers and it can withdraw all IAS officers from UP. We will run the state administration with our own officers”, he said on Monday. However as pointed out in this Firstpost article , these statements are in violation of article 312 of the constitution, although this is unlikely to faze the powers that be. Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav also added his voice to the debate outside Parliament in New Delhi, when he said that the decision to suspend Nagpal was ‘final’ and ‘correct’ and ruled out revoking the decision. The state government has also served a chargesheet to Nagpal giving her 15 days time to submit her reply. Will this statement by Muslim groups force the Samajwadi Party to climb down from its stance? All signs so far, say no.