Why SP's 'Muslim face' Azam Khan skipped key party meet

The Samajwadi Party has come in for a lot of criticism over the Muzaffarnagar riots. The Uttar Pradesh governor said that the ruling government was ‘incapable’ of handling the situation, while opposition parties including the BSP and BJP called for President’s rule in the state. But the reaction that the party is probably most worried about is that of its ‘Muslim face’, Azam Khan who chose to skip a key party meet in Agra on Wednesday. The Samajwadi Party sought to play down Khan’s absence. “There are 106 national executive members, 26 were absent from the meet… it doesn’t matter,” SP national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav told reporters in Agra. The meeting was organised to decide the party’s strategy for the 2014 general elections and the party has taken up issues such as price hike on which it will target the ruling Congress, Hindustan Times reported. [caption id=“attachment_1103217” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan: Image from IBN[/caption] But Khan’s decision to skip the meeting is not as innocuous as the Samajwadi Party is making it out to be. An Indian Express story reported that Khan’s absence coincided with an outburst by Maharashtra state unit president Abu Asim Azmi who called for a return to the ‘old’ Samajwadi Party under Mulayam Singh Yadav which was much more friendly towards Muslims. “Don’t give us laptops, unemployment allowance etc. Give us security. All our good deeds have been washed away by these riots,” the report quoted him as saying. Azam Khan had also been critical of the way the Muzaffarnagar riots were handled, and had previously reacted angrily to a meeting between party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav with VHP leader Ashok Singhal over a proposed march to Ayodhya to demand the construction of the Ram temple. This report in The Hindu notes that in the run up to the SP meet, Khan also skipped the Cabinet meeting presided over by the Chief Minister, making it the eighth consecutive time that he had not attended the Cabinet meeting. Khan’s anger and his decision to stay away from the meeting is significant, especially given how much importance  the party attaches to capturing the Muslim vote of the state. It is unclear if the party plans to do anything to salvage the situation, but tellingly union minister of state for minority welfare, Rahman Khan has now gone on record as saying that the Muzaffarnagar situation could have been handled better.