A day before Delhi goes to polls, Shahi Imam of the city's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, came out in support of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Admi Party (AAP), providing BJP with an opportunity to go hammer and tongs against its principal opponent's "polarising" tactics.
Even though the AAP rejected the offer of support from Bukhari, the BJP was not willing to let it go. In the Lok Sabha election, BJP had successfully turned the tables against the Congress when the Imam issued a similar appeal in favour of the grand old party after a meeting with its president Sonia Gandhi.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who took on the AAP at a news conference at the BJP headquarters on Friday, said those opposed to the fatwa should vote. "Such fatwas have been there earlier also. In Gujarat too it was there and I had said that those opposed to fatwas should come out and vote 100 per cent," he said when asked about the Imam's appeal. Jaitley described the Delhi election as a "choice between governance and anarchy" and dubbed AAP as a party "more comfortable on the streets than in offices."
The Imam's appeal has come close on the heels of Kejriwal taunting BJP over US President Barack Obama's remarks that if Mahatma Gandhi was alive, the acts of religious intolerance in India would have shocked him.
When asked about Obama's comments, Jaitley said aberrations do not alter the country's history of religious tolerance. "The best example of religious tolerance in India was sitting next to President Obama when he made the statement – the Dalai Lama. Even he found it comfortable and India found it comfortable to absorb him in the society here," Jaitley said.
As BJP and AAP held news conferences, taking on each other over various issues, the Imam's appeal became a bone of contention. "AAP condemns and rejects the support of Shahi Imam. AAP is against any type of caste and communal politics... AAP needs support of the common people and will keep striving for it," the party leaders said.
Bukhari had asked the voters to help AAP form an "honest and secular" government and accused BJP of extending support to divisive elements.
Of the 70 constituencies in Delhi, which accounts for around 11 per cent Muslims, eight have significant presence of the minority community. While the AAP has fielded five Muslim candidates, the BJP has put up only one -- Anjuman Dahalwi from Matia Mahal against five-time MLA Shoaib Iqbal, contesting on Congress ticket.
The AAP's distancing itself from the Imam's vote appeal did not stop its opponent from accusing it of playing politics of religion. At a news conference later, Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "they asked for support. Now they are saying they didn't want the support... Yesterday AAP leaders were at a protest organised by representatives of a particular religion... The fatwa's beneficiary is AAP."
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