By Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent,
Guwahati :Badruddin Ajmal led AIUDF under fire for betraying Bangla speaking Muslims and Hindus Backtracking from their stand on ‘Doubtful Voters’ or ‘D-voters’ issue, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), led by Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal has withdrawn case it had filed in Supreme Court in 2011, ‘betraying’ the Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus.
The issue came to fore in 1996 when Election Commission of India issued a circular, instructing authorities to verify the citizenship status of those belonging to erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the Indian state of Assam.
However, there have been allegations of poor survey methods leading to exclusion of many citizens. Also people have been allegedly declared doubtful on the basis of minor clerical errors in their certificates.
AIUDF supremo Badruddin Ajmal blames the ruling BJP and its ideological mentor, RSS for interfering in the National Register of Citizens exercise in Assam to ensure that a large number of minorities are kept out of it.
Advocate Moizuddin Mahmud who was fighting the case on behalf of AIUDF however has different tale to narrate. “We were expecting that we would get relief now. I asked the 19 MLAs, on whose behalf I had filed the PIL, to provide me the list of ‘D-voters’. They sought some time from me because it was a complex task as there were over 3 lakh D-voters all over Assam. I took time of 25 days from the court to submit the list. After 25 days, the legislators told me that they would need further time as they are collecting more names. I took 20 days’ time and the court allowed it,” he said.
But what happened after that was beyond the imagination of the senior lawyer. “I got a call on June 24, 2011, from Munawwar Hussain – who was my teacher. He told me to withdraw the case. After my investigation, I came to know that AIUDF Chief Ajmal had instructed him to ask me to withdraw the case fearing that any relief by the high court to the ‘D-voters’ will snatch away the party’s agenda to ask for votes,” Moizuddin told Newsclick.in.
The AIUDF MLAs have however rubbished the allegation saying that the PIL was withdrawn on ‘technical grounds’.
Badruddin Ajmal does not want to solve this issue, the more it will linger the more he will get political benefits out of it. For Ajmal ‘D-Voters’ issue is a political issue not a community problem so he takes it politically” told Senior Advocate Rashid Ahmed to Muslim Mirror.
“The wolf on the hill is not as hungry as the wolf climbing the hill- Arnold”
Above proverb aptly suits AIUDF and its Chief.