Aligarh’s BJP workers find ‘Allah-ho-Akbar’ offensive

Shouting ‘Allah-ho-Akbar’ (God is great) in response to slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by elected BJP councillors not only resulted in BSP councillor Musharraf Husain (54) being physically assaulted by BJP workers in Aligarh but also an FIR lodged by the police against him for hurting religious sentiment and obstructing public servants from discharging their duty.

BSP sources maintained that BJP councillors, who raised the slogan of Jai Shri Ram while taking oath, first heckled and abused Husain when he took his oath in Urdu and in the name of ‘Khuda’ while the BJP councillors swore by ‘Ishwar’. But when he and a few other councillors retaliated with the slogan, Allah-ho-Akbar, BJP workers pounced upon Husain and pummelled him. Eyewitness accounts confirm that Senior Superintendent of Police Rajesh Pandey had to intervene and rescue Husain.

While no action has been taken on Husain’s written complaint, the pitch has been queered by the FIR against him and, according to media reports, after BJP MLA Sanjeev Raja calling on chief minister Yogi Adityanath to complain against local government officials for BJP’s defeat in Aligarh civic polls. The incident has become a talking point in Aligarh amidst raging controversy on why taking oath in Urdu, one of the official languages and declared the second language in the state, invited the ire of BJP workers.

Several councillors have taken oath in Urdu in the past and even this year Saharanpur councillor Mansoor Badr took his oath in Urdu and was heckled by BJP workers. Others including Haji Gulsher, Mumtaz Parveen, Rizwan Jogi, Shahid Qureshi and Imran Saifi also took oath in Urdu in Saharanpur.

Advocate Sajjad Husain pointed out that oath could be taken in any regional language and certainly in Urdu as it is the second language in the state.

Husain, when contacted, recalled that BJP councillors had raised the slogans, Bharat Mata ki Jai and Jai Shri Ram while several councillors in Aligarh had also raised the slogan, Jai Bheem. But an equally innocuous slogan Allah-Ho-Akbar somehow seemed to infuriate the BJP workers, who mistook it as offensive.

Another lawyer Chandrashekhar Dikshit said, “An oath to a government office can be taken in any official language that figures in the in the Constitution. There is no restriction of any kind on this”.