New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal is right now embroiled in controversy after he met Maulana Tauqeer Raza, head of Ittehad-e- Millat Council, in Bareilly last week seeking support for the Delhi assembly polls.
Tauqeer Raza is the same cleric who had issued a 'fatwa' against Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen and also against former US president Georg W. Bush.
Tauqeer Raza is one of the main accused in March 2010 Bareilly communal riots.
The Muslim cleric had allied with Congress in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, but is now a supporter of Samajwadi Party.
Bareilly BJP leader and former MP Santosh Gangwar has alleged that Kejriwal was now into vote-bank politics.
On his part, Maulana Tauqeer Raza justified his fatwa against Taslima Nasreen. The cleric said on Tuesday that Taslima was "thrown out of Bangladesh for her misdemeanours, and such a woman will be condemned not only by Muslims, but Hindus also. She had no business interfering in the internal matters of another country."
Maulana Tauqeer went on to say that the Indian government should not have granted visa to Taslima Nasreen.
On Bareilly communal riots, the Muslim cleric said, anybody could level charges, and if somebody proves in court that I instigated the riots, I am ready to face any punishment.
The Maulana said, while maintaining his rapport with SP, he would provide full support to Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi assembly polls. "Some political parties are unable to digest my meeting with Kejriwal", he added.
