Is there a Mulayam-BJP nexus?

Lucknow: Is there a secret understanding between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh and the top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership? So thinks the All India Muslim Personal Law board (AIMPLB) executive.

The AIMPLB executive, which met in New Delhi on Sunday, has resolved to raise the issue at its two-day general body meeting in Chennai on January 11-12.

The outcome of the meeting could have a major bearing on Singh's electoral fortunes as the Muslim vote is a key pillar of his strength.

"Mulayam Singh's apathetic attitude towards our repeated request to nail the culprits behind the 1992 demolition of the 16th century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya makes us wonder whether he has struck some secret understanding with the BJP leaders who are going scot-free simply because of the state government's indifference," AIMPLB legal adviser Zafaryab Jilani told IANS.

"We fail to understand what else could be preventing the Uttar Pradesh chief minister from issuing a notification that could bring senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani back on the mat for his involvement in the demolition conspiracy," he said.

"After all, while dropping the criminal proceedings against Advani, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had clearly said that the case could be revived with a fresh government notification for constitution of a special trial court," he added.

The high court had in February 2001 invalidated the constitution of the special court on account of a technical flaw. However, successive governments simply chose to sit over the issue.

"Well, we had not expected (former chief ministers) Mayawati or Raj Nath Singh to do anything against Advani or other BJP leaders charged of conspiracy, but we were quite confident that Mulayam would put them in the dock again. However, he has simply disappointed us," said Maulana Khalid Rasheed, another AIMPLB executive member who also heads Lucknow's oldest Islamic seminary, Firangi Mahal.

He said: "Other than his strange attitude towards the Babri Masjid, another matter of serious concern for us is Singh's stand on the bullet-proofing of the makeshift temple erected on the debris of the razed mosque on Dec 6, 1992."

According to him, "board members are also sore over the chief minister's nod to a proposal for the bullet-proofing".

He went on to ask: "We want to ask him how he could do so when such a move would violate the Supreme Court order for maintaining status quo."

"Bullet-proofing would also tantamount to giving official sanctity to the construction that was done illegally on a piece of usurped land over which the legal right is still being disputed in court."