A government resolution (GR) issued by the state government on November 30 last year regarding the national days and birthdays and death anniversaries of national leaders to be observed in Mantralaya,
A government resolution (GR) issued by the state government on November 30 last year regarding the national days and birthdays and death anniversaries of national leaders to be observed in Mantralaya, government and semi-government offices has been challenged in the Bombay high court. NGO Mumbai Aman Committee and a journalist have opposed the said GR on the ground that there is not a single Muslim leader in the list issued by the state government.
“It is unfortunate that the government has not been able to find a single great figure from the Muslim community. It is in national interest that students and masses should know that Indian Muslims have done service of the motherland and humanity, but somehow what the people come to know is the gloomy part of some misguided Muslims creating a false Islamophobia,” the petition states.
The GR was issued on November 30, 2015, and the list includes anniversaries of 20 national figures, including Lokmanya Tilak, Yashwantrao Chavan, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Rajput warrior Maharana Pratap and Vasantrao Naik. The petitioners have contended that Muslim leaders have not been included in the list of anniversaries although the community has produced great many political leaders like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Zakir Hussain, Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam and religious leaders like Khwaja Garib Nawaz.
The petition, filed by Sarfaraz Arzu, editor of Hindustan, an Urdu daily, Mumbai resident Khalid Muttam and Farid Shaikh, president of NGO Mumbai Aman Committee, would come up for hearing in due course. The respondents to the petition are Maharashtra government, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, minority affairs minister Eknath Khadse and minorities commission chairman Amir Hussain.
The petition said that the impugned notification has hurt and alienated the Muslim community who feel that there has been hostile discrimination against them by the BJP-led coalition government in Maharashtra. The notification has been passed without any application of mind and is therefore null and void, it further said. The petitioner prayed that the impugned notification may be quashed and set aside and until the petition is finally decided, a stay may be granted on the GR.
