Thursday, June 22 2006 11:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Lucknow: Worried by the formation of a new Muslim political outfit, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has virtually embarked on a Muslim wooing spree.

Shortly after announcing a major power subsidy for weavers who are largely Muslims - Yadav has now set up a three-member body to suggest ways of generating more employment opportunities for the minorities.

Local newspapers are already replete with advertisements about how Yadav's government has created 2,853 positions of Urdu teachers as a part of an exercise to create job opportunities for Muslims. The advertisements say 500 more Urdu teachers are to be appointed soon.



Chief Secretary N.C. Bajpai says the government will set up a commission for increasing the participation of the minority community in government jobs. This is to honour the commitment made by the chief minister in his budget speech.

The commission would submit its report within three months.

Political motives have linked the moves to the formation of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), the first Muslim political outfit in Uttar Pradesh, home to millions of Muslims.



Its president, Maulana Kalbe Jawaad, a renowned Shia cleric, has been very critical of the Mulayam government for providing only 'lip service' to Muslims.

The chief minister's anxiety is naturally anxious because the Muslim vote has been a key factor in his rise to power in the state of 166 million people.



Yadav had swung the Muslim vote en bloc in his favour soon after he ordered the police to fire on mobs that tried to storm the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1990.

Two years later, when the mosque was demolished during Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) rule in the state, he found it easy to impress upon Muslims that if he had been in power, the mosque would not have met that fate.



Even as Yadav thrived for the first few years, Muslim support began to thin down with the realization dawning that he was in fact creating a fear psychosis among the minorities.



"You are safe only so long as the Samajwadi Party is in power. The day we go, you will not be able to breathe," was Yadav's buzzword for Muslims.

It worked like magic for almost a decade. But subsequently, Muslims began to ask whether he had done anything concrete for the larger good of Muslims.



It is to re-establish his credentials that Yadav has now redoubled his efforts to once again get into the good books of the Muslim community.

Jawaad sees the chief minister's moves as a 'political stunt'.

"What was he doing all these years? Why did he take Muslims for granted? It is evident that he is making all these announcements to win back the Muslim vote. But I wish to make it loud and clear that enough is enough," he said.