Muslims’ honeymoon with SP govt almost over

Muslims’ honeymoon with SP govt almost over

Muslims, who contributed crucially to the Samajwadi Party’s handsome victory in the UP assembly election, seem to be a disillusioned lot in the state within just eight months of the Akhilesh Yadav regime. If random feedback from the Muslim community is any indication, the SP is in for a tough time with regard to its Lok Sabha election campaign as Muslims constituted over 18% of the state’s population. “It seems that we committed a grave mistake in helping the SP come to power in UP,” the Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari lamented in Kanpur. He said SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had failed to keep their promises made to the Muslims. “Mulayam had promised that innocent Muslim youths jailed on fake terror charges would be freed. But nothing has been done till now. Cases are being withdrawn only against political leaders,” he said. Release of innocent Muslim youth from jails was one of the major promises in the SP’s election manifesto which had attracted the minority community to vote for the Samajwadi Party. Though the Samajwadi Party government has initiated proceedings for withdrawal of cases against the accused in the serial blasts in courts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi on November 23, 2007, the matter is stuck in the court.