Intro: The monumental support of Muslim electorate for AAP was assiduously secured by Arvind Kejriwal after currying favour with radical Maulanas and Imams since 2011 when he was participating in Anna Hazare’s Lokpal campaign.
Hindus faced one thousand years of slavery. First they became slaves of the Muslim invaders due to disunity and later on of the traders-turned conquerors, the Englishmen! Proverbially, it seems Hindu leaders have a short memory and blurred vision. That perhaps also explains why we remained purblind to Arvind Kejriwal’s repetitive attempts to woo the fundamentalist Muslim voters and succeeded in defeating the BJP in the recent Delhi Assembly elections. The fact remains that nearly 75 per cent of Delhi’s Muslim voters and 90 per cent Christian voters rallied to support the Aam Aadmi Party, and ensured thumping victory.
It is a pity that our inadequately-read telemedia anchors and even print media failed to read the tea leaves of Kejriwals close contacts with the leaders of Muslim community across India and abroad, especially the Imam of Jama Masjid. Equally astounding has been the failure of our intelligence agencies to unravel the stark truth about the funding of AAP by certain foreign-based groups which allegedly includes radical Islamic groups and individuals based in the Middle East.
The spectacular debut of AAP on the political horizon during the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections did expose the secret relationship of Kejriwal’s team with the donors based across Sheikhdoms of West Asia and even in our hostile neighbouring country. The rise of Kejriwal began with his well planned association with the anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare launched in April 2011, for enacting the Lok pal Bill. Interestingly neither Anna, nor most of his associates, except perhaps to some extent Kiran Bedi, could decipher Kejriwal’s Muslim-centric game-plan. The clue was reflected in Kejriwal’s meetings with the Imam of Jama Masjid and other Muslim leaders at whose instance in the third week of August, 2011, Bharat Mata’s portrait was suddenly removed from Anna’s stage and replaced with the likeness of Gandhiji.
The unusual success of the AAP in 2015 Delhi Assembly elections has caused tectonic tremors across the country, especially the emergence of new kind of appeasement politics taking birth under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal. The shrewd implications of the meaningful change was neither analysed and understood by our ‘unpaid’ or ‘paid’ media, nor by the political strategists. In this context, the revelations made by the Delhi Jama Masjid Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari in 2011 are quite relevant. The Imam disclosed that Hazare’s team members had asked him to share the stage with them at Ramlila ground, but he was not inclined to go there. He claimed to have told Kejriwal that “if you want to include Muslims in your movement, you will also have to understand their pain and problems, and highlight issues of concern to Muslims.” He further added that the greater evil in the country was communalism which should be addressed first. Additionally, Imam Bukhari told Kejriwal that communal powers were also participating in their campaign due to which it was difficult for Muslims to join them. The removal of Bharat Mata’s painting from Anna Hazare’s stage was the result of Imam Bukhari’s briefing to Kejriwal.
Equally surprising was the deliberate ignoring by our political analysts of Kejriwal’s sudden but meaningful two hours long meeting with the fundamentalist fatwa-issuing cleric, Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan of Bareilly, who had issued a ‘fatwa’ in 2007, promising a reward for forcing Taslima Nasreen to burn her books and leave India. Earlier in March, 2006, the same Maulana Tauqeer had issued a ‘fatwa’ for beheading the American President, George Bush, when he visited India. Though Kejriwal tried to dismiss his meeting with the notorious Maulana as a courtesy call, the latter was more frank. Maulana Tauqueer frankly admitted that Kejriwal had come to his house for a 2 hours long meeting with him. He showered praise on Arvind Kejriwal in the following words: “Kejriwal came to meet me at my residence. I liked his simplicity. He is against the Congress and BJP. This is a common factor between us and so I assured him of my support”
No wonder, at the height of the campaign for Delhi assembly, a group of prominent Muslim clerics and leaders held a conference in Delhi in November, 2013. Thereafter Kejriwal’s time-tested plan of using SMS mode was put into operation for winning large scale votes of Muslims. As pointed out by Rohini Singh in an article published in The Economic Times, New Delhi, on December 13, 2013, under the guidance of a newly formed outfit, United Muslim Forum, approximately 15 lakh text messages were sent to Muslim voters, urging them to vote for AAP and not to vote for Congress. Twenty-five teams tasked with campaigning for AAP and against the Congress were sent to constituencies of Delhi Assembly. These teams had a significant Muslim presence. The forum, which had the blessings of Maulana Tauqeer and many other Muslim leaders, also distributed campaign material and gave advertisements in Delhi’s Urdu newspapers which are the staple reading material of the Muslim community. ‘Vote for AAP, not Congress’, the ads proclaimed loudly in Urdu newspapers. Any reference to the BJP was avoided with the presumption that no Muslim will vote for the saffron party.
The seamiest side of the Kejriwal’s narrative was, however, laid bare in an article posted by a Baloch journalist, Aamna Shahwani in The Afghanistan Times, Kabul, on March 4, 2014.
The well-researched article highlighted the following facts to which the eternal quiz master Kejriwal must respond:
- After AAP won 28 seats out of the 70 in 2013 state elections in Delhi, the Pakistani media was full of praise for AAP. Although the BJP had won a few more seats than the AAP, the well known Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, totally ignored the BJP’s electoral tally, but publicised the AAP victory by frontpaging the news. No one knows why suddenly Kejriwal became a darling of the Pakistani chatterati?
- After AAP's victory in 2013, there were celebrations in different cities of Pakistan, especially in the Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Can Kejri explain what led the jihadi tribe to laud and celebrate AAP’s political debut in Delhi Assembly elections?
- There was a big spurt in the online donations from Pakistanis to AAP. According to Aamna’s article more support was likely come to AAP from Pakistan because the ISI wants to have a puppet regime in the capital of India, i.e., New Delhi. Why there was a sudden spurt in online donations for AAP from Pakistan needs to be explained by Kejriwal?
- In February 2014, even the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, proclaimed that the victory of Kejriwal will help in resolving the Kashmir dispute. He needs to explain what made him a darling of the Pakistani politicians?
- The prime reason for Pakistan’s love for Kejriwal and AAP is their anti-India stand on Kashmir dispute. The Baloch columnist Aamna pointed out that at least 3 members of AAP had delivered anti-India and pro-secessionist statements on Kashmir, including the desirability of referendum or plebiscite voiced by Prashant Bhushan. Someone ought to ask why do the AAP activists have a pro-secessionist approach on Kashmir?
- It needs to be observed that AAP has many members who had pleaded for sparing the life of Ajmal Kasab who was convicted for attacking the Indian Parliament. Kejriwal must explain why did AAP leaders have a soft corner for Ajmal Kasab?
- Aamna Shahwani further alleged that no attempt was made by Kejriwal during his regime to recover the long pending electricity bills running into several lakh rupees from the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid? Was the soft corner of the AAP leaderhip for Shahi Imam any attempt to recover the long pending electricity bills occasioned by his proximity to the radical Islamists?
- After post-poll alliance with the Congress party, Kejriwal forgot his earlier charge sheet against the former Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit and also removed from the website of AAP, the earlier postings about charging Dikshit with mammoth bribery. Why?
- The Baloch journalist pointed also out that a new entrant to AAP, Rajmohan Gandhi, who happens to be a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi had launched a campaign in the USA for releasing the notorious ISI spy, Ghulam Nabi Fai, planted in the USA. She also asked why some members of the AAP openly campaigned in favour of mercy for Afzal Guru who was sentenced to death for the December, 2001, attack on the Indian Parliament. It showed their pro-radical Islam colours and contours.
The facts-packed article of Aamna cited more than one proof of the AAP being funded and supported by the hostile elements based in Pakistan.
Finally the ‘communal cat’ jumped out of Kejriwal’s ‘secular topi’’ when the Washington-based Association of Indian Muslims of America issued an “appeal to Indian Muslim citizens and voters to raise funds for and support Aam Aadmi Party” in the parliamentary elections, 2014. Showering encomiums on the AAP, the press release of American Indian Muslims Association displayed Kejriwal’s photograph and his famous ‘broom’ to enthuse the Muslim voters. The press release claimed that AAP will help the deprived Muslim community escape the police brutality and denial of justice, etc.
Time has come for the self-proclaimed anarchist Kejriwal and his teammates to respond truthfully to the above mentioned questions raised by Aamna Shahwani in her article published in The Afghanistan Times. They must come clean now to dispel the doubts troubling the minds of millions of patriotic Indians, especially when there are hush-hush rumours in the Lutyen’s garden city about Kejriwal’s proximity to the Political Adviser of the UPA Chairperson and some prominent members of the National Advisory Council! After all, his trusted associate, Yogendra Yadav, also had been an advisor to Rahul Gandhi during the 2009 general elections to the Parliament.
It is public knowledge that on December 7, 2014, Kejriwal was felicitated by a Dubai-based shadowy organisation, ‘World Brands Summit’ with great fanfare. He was infamously flown in the Business Class courtesy his Dubai-based money bags. While the Indian media latched on to the gross impropriety of a self-proclaimed representative the ‘aam aadmi’ of India in Business Class they failed to analyse the implications of AAP’s Dubai connection and the ‘wah-wah’ of Kejri’s admirers nestling in the Pak occupied Kashmir-as highlighted by Kabul-based newspaper The Afghanistan Times, on March 4, 2014 (cited in my article Kejri Files, first edition).
Kejriwal’s coronation by the World Brands Summit was also publicised in the Khaleej Times, a popular newspaper published from the Gulf.
Subsequently, the youth inspiring Kejri proceed to New York where his admirers organised interaction with various groups of the Indian community. A statement issued by the AAP clarified that no “official fund raising has been organised by the party during Kejriwal’s trip of the US also. However, the NRIs willing to become a part of the transparent donations for the AAP are welcome to contribute in accordance with party’s norms displayed on the website”.
AAP’s victory in Delhi Assembly elections has come as a shot in the arm of radical Muslims of Delhi. According to a report published on January 22, 2015, in the Urdu newspaper, Hindustan Express, Maulana Yasin Akhtar, was picked up by the police from Jamia Nagar, because he was frequently receiving suspicious phone calls from Pakistan and Bangladesh. He was questioned by Special Cell of Delhi police at Lodhi Road Police Station.
The news of the detention of the Pak-connected Maulana Yasin led to protests and the AAP candidate for Assembly seat, Maulana Amanatullah Khan, sat on dharna at police station demanding his release. Simultaneously protests erupted in Jamia Nagar and attempts were made to block the roads.
Ultimately Maulana Yasin was released by the police. The episode is said to have added to the prestige of Kejriwal among Muslims of Delhi. To regain the ground in Delhi BJP should remember, the sagely advice of the Chinese straegeist Sun Tzu who wrote thus in his magnum opus, ‘The Art of War’:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”
Ram Kumar Ohri (The writer is retired IPS officer)
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