A day after skipping the meeting of the powerful Majlis-e-Shoora (governing council) of the Darul Uloom, Deoband of which he is a member, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, who leads the All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam and is a Lok Sabha MP from Dhubri, on Thursday claimed that he did so as he was facing threats.
The Shoora meeting which had been called to discuss the fate of vice-chancellor, Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi following his pro-Modi remarks decided to clip his wings by appointing an acting V-C. The set-up in the influential seminary in Deoband will remain thus while a three-member committee examines the remarks made by Maulana Vastanvi.
Calling a press conference in the capital on Thursday, Maulana Ajmal claimed that he wanted to keep away from the dirty politics that Deoband has witnessed in the last one month. He accused the Arshad Madani faction of the Jamiat-Ulama-e-Hind (JuH) of spreading filth in Deoband following in the last one month.
Maulana Ajmal further said that he had accepted the decision of the Shura and by doing so had done his duty as a Shura member. He also said that he did not want to participate in those developments that are not in the interest of Deoband.
Claiming that he wasn’t after siasat (power), Maulana Ajmal whose party backed by the JuH has made steady in-roads in Assam politics in the last few years said that he goes to Deoband only for khidmat (service) and ibadat (prayer). As for his politics, he prefers the forum offered for it by Parliament, he said.
However, there is much more to his absence that meets the eye particularly as he was backing the now in trouble Maulana Vastanvi at one point in time. For Maulana Ajmal who was until recently with Arshad Madani now appears to have switched sides and is now backing the other JuH faction led by Mahmood Madani who is also a Rajya Sabha MP.
The bitter falling-out between Maulana Ajmal and Arshad Madani appears to have happened in January itself after the former backed Maulana Vastanvi. Maulana Ajmal further alleges that Arshad Madani wanted to become the V-C of Deoband.