“Bukhari is not an Imam and definitely not my Imam. What is this Shahi title and son’s anointment? Jama Masjid is not his personal property. He does not represent our community.” – MIM Supremo and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi
Indira Satyanarayan for BeyondHeadlines
Syed Ahmed Bukhari seems to be thriving on controversies. A criminal case was lodged against Bukhari in 2001 when a mob led by him assaulted the duty police and civic agency officials who were trying to remove encroachment from CGO Complex in Lodhi Colony. Non-bailable warrants were issued against Bukhari by the Delhi Court and Delhi Police.
In 2010 Mohammed Wahid Chishti, Editor of Dastan-e-Awadh, had filed an FIR against Bukhari. Bukhari had threatened the editor with dire consequences when he asked Bukhari “uncomfortable questions” during a press Conference.
And now the latest controversy is Syed Ahmed Bukhari not inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the anointment ceremony of his son as the “Naib Imam” or the Imam’s Deputy on November 22nd. As a direct insult to the Prime Minister the Shahi Imam has invited Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the function.
At a time when India’s relations with Pakistan is strained due to cross border terrorism Syed Ahmed Bukhari blatantly inviting the prime Minister of a rogue nation has predictably drawn flak and strong mixed reactions from people.
According to Dr. Abdul Rahim Undre, recipient of the Best SURGEON award of Indian Educational Conclave in Hyderabad, President of the Royal Educational Society in Raigad, Maharashtra and General Surgeon at Saifee Hospital Mumbai, “Syed Ahmed Bukhari anointing his son is a personal function whom he calls is his personal choice. He has a right to call whom he likes and not call those whom he does not like’’.
Young, dynamic Zulfi Memon – son of NCP National Secretary Majeed Memon and Head of MZM-Law firm in Mumbai had just returned from London in the morning when I asked him his reaction to Syed Ahmed Bukhari inviting Nawaz Sharif and keeping Prime Minister Narendra Modi off the guest list of the function of anointing his son as the Imam’s deputy. Zulfi Memon, however, presented a different perspective. Disagreeing with Dr. Abdul Rahim Undre, Zulfi Memon said, “The whole nation is watching whom Syed Ahmed Bukhari is inviting for the ceremony. By not inviting Narendra Modi – the elected representative of the Nation Syed Ahmed Bukhari has shown disrespect to the Prime Minister.”
The reason which Ahmed Bukhari cites for not inviting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that, “the Muslims have not forgiven Modi for the Gujarat riots. Modi claims to be prime minister of 125 crores Indians but he avoids addressing Muslims…Modi doesn’t like us says Bukhari in a Times of India report.
Such inflammatory talk is not going down well even with the Muslims. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, in an interview to Times of India, says, “Bukhari is not an imam, he is definitely not my Imam. What is this Shahi title and his son’s anointment? Jama Masjid is not his personal property. He does not represent our community.”
Modi’s “Sab ka Saath, sab ka Vikas” – reach out to Muslims is however not going unnoticed. On November 2nd, DNA published a report, “With Development card, BJP wins over Muslim Leaders”. The report stated that a recent meeting between Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and prominent leaders of the Muslim community was held in Hotel Trident where Muslim leaders extended their “wholehearted” support to him.
During the Holy month of Ramzan a group of Muslim women from Varnasi sent Rakhees and prayed for Modi’s well-being. According to Nazneen Ansari, an activist working for Hindu Muslim unity, “We want to see Narendra Modi lead the Nation as he is a responsible politician with a vision of development.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visibly concentrating on Development and Good Governance. He is visiting foreign destinations to bring in foreign investments to India to improve Economic growth and he has categorically stated that he does not want communal tensions for ten years.
Bukhari by ostentatiously inviting Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel and deliberately omitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the 200 guest list is endorsing his support to the Congress. Sonia Gandhi however has turned down the invitation to attend the “Coronation Ceremony”.
In April 2014, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had a meeting with Ahmed Bukhari just before the Lok Sabha elections. The Deoband Darul Uloom had almost issued a Fatwa against Imam Ahmed Bukhari for his interfering in UP politics and dismissed his call to support the Congress. It is imperative to state here that clerics should stick to religion and stop indulging in divisive politics.
The move to anoint his 19 year son Shaban as the Naib Imam has evoked dissent from Syed Ahmed Bukhari’s own family and his younger brother Yahya Bukhari. According to Yahya Bukhari their father – the late Shahi Imam Syed Abdullah Bukhari had wanted that the present imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari would be succeeded by his eldest son. The eldest son is Yasir from Ahmed Bukhari’s first marriage whom the present Imam has disowned.
Yahya Bukhari says that the words of his late father should be honored and it is Yasir not Shaban who should be made the Naib Imam. Before indulging in controversies Imam Ahmed Bukhari should first set his own house in order, I guess.
When Ahmed Bukhari became Imam of Jama Masjid the Waqf Board refused to recognize his appointment. His application lay pending in the Waqf office for nearly 5 years which goes to prove that Ahmed Bukhari does not have the backing of the majority of Muslims. Yet Ahmed Bukhari has the audacity to say that he had to heed to the sentiments of Muslims.
The community was never with Modi and only a minuscule had voted for him. Modi has not shown any remorse for the 2002 Gujarat riots says the Imam. Rather than reaching out to the community he has ignored the Muslims altogether in the last four months. If this is the divisive, myopic view of the Imam, he should as Yahya Bukhari his younger brother has suggested be holding the ‘’Coronation Ceremony’’ of his son in Pakistan not in India.
