Recently another big controversy came today when Mohammad Furqan, the new mayor of Aligarh told media that he doesn’t remember nation anthem. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member had taken over as the mayor of Aligarh by defeating Mr. Rajiv Agarwal, the candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Civic Elections 2017 held on December 1, 2017.
Not more than one month, this statement of the mayor comes barely a month after Furqan’s oath-taking ceremony. Mr. Furqan had even apparently taken his oath of secrecy in Urdu which led to a scuffle between the workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Today Mohammad Furqan said that he doesn’t remember the Indian national anthem. According to him- “I don’t remember the national anthem of India completely. Why are you asking such type of questions? I really respect our national anthem,” he told media reporters when asked by media to recite the Indian national anthem after addressing the first press conference after holding the charge as the city Mayor in Aligarh.
Last month in December 2017, another leader of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Sunita Verma had categorically stated that the national song “Vande Mataram” will not be sung ahead of the board meetings. She is the Mayor of Meerut.
Sunita Verma issued a new directive asking all members to sing the Indian national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, instead of the national song Vande Mataram, citing the constitution of the municipal board. She did it by reversing her predecessor Harikant Ahluwalia’s decision. Harikant is an active BJP member.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mr. Furkan became the 1st Muslim candidate to become Aligarh Mayor after defeating Mr. Rajiv Agarwal, who is actually a BJP candidate, by a margin of more than 11 thousand votes.
Till date, Aligarh is a traditional Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bastion. BJP lost the polls for the first time in last year in 2017 ever since the direct voting system was introduced for the mayoral post in 1995.
Mr. Furqan’s victory is significant as the Mayawati-led party was already mauled badly in the last state Assembly elections earlier in 2017. Last week, the Supreme Court (SC) modified its earlier rules, regulations and ordered that it is not mandatory for cinema halls to play the national anthem at the beginning before playing any movie.
However, everything is right if it is a matter of personal parameter or religious parameter, but when it is related to a national parameter, it should be mandatory and obviously for a mayor it is really embarrassing as he is holding a political post. Furqan is the first Muslim candidate to become Aligarh mayor after defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mr. Rajeev. When the opposition is so much stronger and they have a strong feeling of nationalism and Hindutva, Faruqan really throws himself in an awkward situation. Obviously, he can lose public support.
