Senior Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader and Minority Welfare Minister in the Jharkhand government Hafizul Hasan Thursday (April 28) issued a veiled threat to Hindus, saying, “If 20% of the population are disturbed, 80% of the population will be destroyed”.
JMM is leading the coalition government in Jharkhand, which has Congress and RJD as ruling partners.
“Whatever the Central government is doing against us will cause them equal damage. If we make up 20% of the population, you are 80%. If you shut down our businesses and homes, you too have 80% to lose,” Minister Hasan said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had taken a very strong objection to the language used by the minister.
Asking the minister to not cross the limits, Union Tribal Affairs Minister and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda said, “When you take the oath of office, you are bound by certain limits. Under no condition, you should try to surpass or breach those limits.”
The BJP MP from Jharkhand, Nishikant Dubey, strongly criticised the minister for instigating provocation. “Have you given supari to this minister? Your agenda of instigating conversion and inciting communal hatred is now out in the open. Hafeez is an MLA from my Lok Sabha constituency. In the next election, I will ensure his bail gets cancelled,” Shri Dubey said.
Congress, which is a partner in the ruling coalition in Jharkhand, justified the statement by Minister Hasan.
“We all feel that what the Minister said, if you see and think about it, then, in the past few days the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to create an atmosphere of negativity, of hatred towards a particular community. This is also extremely harmful to the Democracy prevailing in the country,” the Congress spokesperson said.
The Jharkhand government is already in trouble for granting a mining licence to Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
In September last year, the Hemant Soren government allotted a special hall in the main Jharkhand Assembly Building to offer namaz.
“In the new assembly building, hall no TW-348 is being allotted for offering namaz”, read the order.
The Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi had criticised the Jharkhand government for allotting a hall for offering namaz inside the assembly building.
“The allocation is absolutely wrong. We will demand that this order is taken back and cancelled immediately. The assembly is a temple of democracy. If order is implemented, it’ll no longer remain a temple of democracy. This order is against the spirit of democracy and BJP opposes it”, he had said to the Organiser.
He had added, “The Jharkhand government will have to take back this decision.”
