Is Shia leadership Pro-BJP?

By – Ali Akmal

Shia Cleric Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad Naqvi considered being the most popular face of Shia community. He is a Twelver Shia Muslim cleric and scholar from Lucknow, India. Shia Muslims are the largest minority among Muslims in India.

Kalbe Jawwad is a direct descendant of an important cleric of Shia. It is assumed that Shias, as a community, have limited rights to question their leadership. Iranian political leadership is however considered as the ideal.

The most common face of Shia community Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawwad always remains in highlights with his statements. He is one vocal speaker and usually shares opinions on all controversial issues whether it be the case of Babri mosque demolition or related to any political parties.

In his latest statement, Shia cleric Kalbe Jawad praised the Narendra Modi government and Yogi Adityanath for their outreach to the minorities and said that the ‘Muslims are the safest under their rule’.

He said, “There has not been a single communal riot in the eight months of the Adityanath government as against more than 600 big and small riots during Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure.”

Despite the fact that Dadri lynching became the symbol of oppression against the Muslims in India, the spiritual leader comfortably ignored it. The case of Dadri mob lynching incident which took away the life of 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaque. On 28th September 2015, he was beaten to death by a mob in Dadri. The mob accused him of consuming beef.

However, he never appeared in support of Mohammad Akhlaq’s family. He, in fact, shied away from denouncing the Gaurakshaks which is largely operated in his state.

The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath always remains in highlights because of his hate speeches and his obsession towards saffron. Recently, he attempted to colour whole of Uttar Pradesh government institutions with saffron. In fact, in his tenure, the government buses were also observed painted in saffron.

Here are some statements of current UP CM which were never threatening, if beliefs top spiritual leader.

On love jihad: We will not tolerate harassment of Hindus in the state at any cost…If anybody tries to touch Hindus in eastern UP, he will have to face the consequences.

On minorities: We want you (minorities) not to kill anybody and live peacefully and concentrate on
progress…If the other side does not stay in peace, we will teach them how to stay in peace…in the language that they understand. (During a TV programme on August 31, 2014)

On Hindu Rashtra: I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu Rashtra. (At Etah UP in 2005)

According to an IndiaSpend content analysis of the English media, there is a huge rise in attacks on Muslim, 97% attacks are after the Modi government assumed the power. In cow-related violence, 86% are Muslim who were killed since 2010.

In the last 8 years, IndiaSpend found 63 such cases that fall under this category, of which a staggering 61 took place after the BJP-led government at the Centre came to ­­­­power in 2014.

The numbers have escalated since the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into power in 2014. In the last three years alone, 97% of these incidents took place, 75% jump over the total number of such incidents in 2016.

However, it seems the Shia cleric Kalbe Jawwad might have forgotten all these before praising the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.