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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
The 24-hour visit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lucknow, his political constituency, was marred by poor turnout at various public functions and two major demonstrations by Shia Muslims.
However, Vajpayee seems to have succeeded in conveying a political message to the sparring coalition partners in Uttar Pradesh -- Bahujan Samaj Party and his own Bharatiya Janata Party -- to exercise restraint 'in the larger interest' of ensuring a long life to the coalition government.
"He not only castigated some of his own partymen for creating hurdles in the smooth functioning of the arrangement, but also cautioned Mayawati against provocative utterances that could sour the relations between the two parties," a senior BJP leader told rediff.com.
Vajpayee started his day by inaugurating the Bhaurau Deoras Rest House. But the reception was tepid, as evidenced when an RSS activist called out 'Atal Bihari Vajpayee', but none present followed it up with the usual 'zindabad'.
However, the worst came in the form of two major demonstrations by large bands of Shia Muslims, protesting the government's apathy to their long pending demand for a probe into the large scale misappropriation of land and property belonging to Shia Muslim Waqfs (trusts).
At least five thousand Shia Muslims took out a silent protest march at two different places in Lucknow, to eventually court arrest.
While one batch was led by Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, who is also the vice-president of All India Muslim Personal Law Board , the other batch was led by his firebrand nephew Maulana Kalbe Jawaad, who a has a very strong following among the Shia youth.
After courting arrest, the two leaders were taken to the police lines where they addressed their followers, who were in tow.
Kalbe Sadiq claimed, "The protest was not directed against the prime minister," adding, "it was sheer coincidence that our ultimatum for this protest demonstration was ending today."
Jawaad, however, directly trained his guns against the state government and Vajpayee.
"We have met Mr Vajpayee two times on this issue and each time he promised concrete steps against grabbing of Waqf lands and property by criminals, anti-social elements, with active connivance of government officials; however nothing seems to have come out of the assurances," he said.
He claimed that since a lot of Waqf property was under the 'unlawful possession and occupation' of government departments or influential persons, only a high-level impartial probe could 'unearth the racket'.
Interestingly, it is this section of the Shia community that has been extending support to Vajpayee during the past elections.
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