Kejriwal draws flak for alliance with maulana
6 Nov 2013 6:46 AM IST
Otherwise, he would not have sought his assistance in campaigning for his party for the upcoming Delhi polls.
The maulana, on his part, is not yet ready for a divorce and insists that he has been invited to campaign in the upcoming polls and he would do so. ‘I have liked Kejriwal ji since the time he started his fight. He is clear that he wants to give people an option other than BJP and Congress. Parliament is full of dirt. It needs to be cleaned with a broom,’ he told reporters in Bareilly.
Tauqueer Rana, belonging to a family of clerics, had hit the headlines while issuing a fatwa (religious diktat) and announcing prize for beheading exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen as he considered her writing to be un-Islamic. The maulana also heads a political party which had won a seat in the assembly polls of Uttar Pradesh last year.
Rana later offered support to the Samajwadi Party government and came to hold a minister-level position. He gave up his perks and privileges resigning in protest against the inability of Akhilesh Yadav government to control riots in Muzaffarnagar district.
Commenting on his objective for meeting the cleric, Kejriwal said, ‘We wanted to appeal to him that this battle is against corruption. Everyone who loves the nation should come together to help clean the system. Be it Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs, we all need to come together and fight against corruption. I have requested him to join our fight. For us, this is another fight for freedom.’
The maulana, on his part, is not yet ready for a divorce and insists that he has been invited to campaign in the upcoming polls and he would do so. ‘I have liked Kejriwal ji since the time he started his fight. He is clear that he wants to give people an option other than BJP and Congress. Parliament is full of dirt. It needs to be cleaned with a broom,’ he told reporters in Bareilly.
Tauqueer Rana, belonging to a family of clerics, had hit the headlines while issuing a fatwa (religious diktat) and announcing prize for beheading exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen as he considered her writing to be un-Islamic. The maulana also heads a political party which had won a seat in the assembly polls of Uttar Pradesh last year.
Rana later offered support to the Samajwadi Party government and came to hold a minister-level position. He gave up his perks and privileges resigning in protest against the inability of Akhilesh Yadav government to control riots in Muzaffarnagar district.
Commenting on his objective for meeting the cleric, Kejriwal said, ‘We wanted to appeal to him that this battle is against corruption. Everyone who loves the nation should come together to help clean the system. Be it Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs, we all need to come together and fight against corruption. I have requested him to join our fight. For us, this is another fight for freedom.’
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