PM, Home Minister should reject Naik's allegations, says Digvijaya Singh

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah should reject allegations by controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik that he was approached by the Indian government for the support over the abrogation of Article 370 and noted that if they do not do so, it will be assumed his allegations are correct.

Indore: Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to clarify on controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's claim that the Centre had offered him safe passage to India in exchange for his support on the abrogation of Article 370.

The controversial preacher had recently claimed that a representative of the Narendra Modi government had approached him in Malaysia in September last year, and offered him safe passage to India in return for his support for the Centre's decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special constitutional status.

Tweeting a video of Naik's claim, Digvijay Singh on Wednesday said, "The Prime Minister and the Home Minister should officially deny Dr Zakir Naik's allegations or else it will mean that "anti-national" Dr Zakir Naik's accusation was right."

Talking to reporters in Indore hours later, Singh said, "Through a video, Naik has issued a statement saying that Modi and Amit Shah had sent an emissary to him in September 2019, who told him (Naik) that if he supports the government on abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, cases against him would be scrapped and he will be able to return to India."

"If Zakir Naik, who has been dubbed as anti-national by Modi and Shah, has given such a statement, then they should deny it," he said.

"My question is why the prime minister and home minister have not refuted Naik's charge so far," the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.

Naik, a 53-year-old radical television preacher, has been wanted in India for money laundering and inciting extremism through hate speeches. He had left India in 2016 and subsequently moved to Malaysia, where he was granted permanent residency.

In the backdrop of growing protests against the likely National Register of Citizens (NRC), senior Congress leader also said that people will furnish relevant documents if Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows birth certificates of his parents.

Singh's remarks came four days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) passed a resolution opposing the new citizenship act and the NRC.

Singh was visiting Indore, which is classified as the cleanest city in the country, along with other members of the Standing Committee on Urban Development of Parliament.