Lucknow:
Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, says his new job is keeping him too busy to travel to Delhi for a leadership conclave he was slated to address this weekend. He neatly side-steps a question on whether it is the presence of controversial author Salman Rushdie at the meet that is keeping him away.
"I won't attend the conclave because I have too much work," was all Mr Yadav offered when asked why he was skipping the
India Today Conclave. Pakistani politician and former cricketer Imran Khan was more forthcoming when he cancelled his participation in the conclave saying in a statement that "he could not even think of participating in any programme that included Salman Rushdie who has caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims across the globe." Salman Rushdie has a faced a fatwa for his book " The Satanic Verses" which Muslim clerics all over the world have slammed as blasphemous.
In Akhilesh's Uttar Pradesh victory, the state's 18 per cent Muslim voters played a significant role. The Congress overtly played the Muslim card during its campaign, but it was the Samajwadi Party that got back the loyal vote it had lost largely because of Mulayam Singh Yadav shaking hands with Kalyan Singh, seen as the face of the Babri Masjid demolition. Akhilesh Yadav, who wrote the SP's UP script, is credited with ending the Kalyan Singh misadventure.
Today, prominent Muslim clerics and Ulemas were present at the Akhilesh Yadav swearing-in in Lucknow. Many of these clerics, including the Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Imam Bukhari, had opposed the move to invite Mr Rushdie for the Jaipur Literary Festival this January. So loud and vociferous were the protests in Jaipur and from many other parts if the country, that Mr Rushdie cancelled his proposed visit saying he had received death threats. A video conference with the participants at the literary festival was also called off citing law and order.
The conclave is a two-day event that gets together thought leadership, this time on the theme, Asian Century - Securing Global Promise. Akhilesh Yadav, as the GenNext politician of the moment and the fiery Rushdie were both speakers at the meet. Imran Khan was to have delivered the keynote address.