Minority card? Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad likely to attend post-Eid dinner hosted by JUH

NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad are likely to attend a post-Eid dinner in Delhi to be hosted by leading Muslim organization Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) on July 22. The gathering may see a few prominent members from Congress as well.

Participation of Nitish and Lalu in such a gathering may appear routine, but its timing is bound to attract eyeballs amid apprehension of polarization ahead of the year-end Bihar polls. The JUH, however, said one should not read too much into the attendees at the dinner as invites would go to BJP members as well on such occasions.

Though the group hosts dinner as 'Eid Milan' almost every year, the forthcoming one assumes significance as it is to be hosted merely hours after its brainstorming on the recent row over 'Yoga' and 'madrasas'.

"Our working committee will meet on July 22 and discuss concerns of the community on practice of Yoga and the Maharashtra government's move to derecognize madrasa education in the state," said JUH national secretary and spokesperson Abdul Hameed Nomani.

Nomani told TOI that it was quite natural for the working committee to take up the issues which have been agitating members of the community.

Refusing to link the meeting with the post-Eid dinner, he said it was merely a coincidence that both the events would take place on the same day. "Dinner has nothing to do with what we would discuss in the working committee," said Nomani, adding such 'Eid Milan' is organized almost every year where leaders of various political parties come. "Once Atal Bihari Vajpayee attended 'Eid Milan' hosted by the organization," said the JUH national secretary while refusing to link it with politics or the Bihar elections.

Asked about opposition of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to International Yoga Day that was celebrated on June 21, Nomani said JUH differed with the views of Wali Rahmani of the board.

He said JUH doesn't have objection to practising 'Yoga' as a form of physical exercise while AIMPLB vehemently opposed the idea. He admitted that the JUH and the Board are not on the same page on the issue.

"Nevertheless, we will discuss it in our working committee as it is being debated in the face of misinformation whether it would be a voluntary practice or made compulsory in schools or other places," said Nomani.