Rampur:Â Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan kicked off yet another controversy by his irate comments during the birthday celebration of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Questioned about the funding for the grand event, Khan said it is funded by terror group Taliban and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
“Why does it matter where the money for celebrations is coming from? The celebrations are being funded by terror organisations like Taliban and Dawood,” he sarcastically said.
The grand celebration for the SP chief’s 76th birthday in Rampur include a 75-feet-long cake and a Victorian ‘buggy’ hired from London. “The birthday celebrations will start from tomorrow midnight and Netaji (Mulayam) along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will reach Rampur in afternoon,” SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said.
A special Victorian ‘buggy’ (horse-drawn carriage) would carry Mulayam in the stronghold of his trusted lieutenant and Azam Khan for a distance of around 14 km from the CRPF camp to Maulana Ali Jauhar University, sources said.
On the day of his birthday, the SP supremo will lay the foundation stone of a medical college, besides addressing a public meeting. Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi and several other dignitaries will attend the function at the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University. The Samajwadi Party has decided to celebrate Singh’s 76th birthday as ‘Samta Diwas’.
Khan had also stirred a controversy on Thursday by suggesting that Taj Mahal and the income generated through it should be handed over to the Wakf Board contending that the monument is a mausoleum. “Taj Mahal is a mausoleum and each mausoleum is ‘Waqf’ and comes under the Sunni Central Waqf Board,” he had said.
In a sarcastic note, he had added, “the building constructed over the mausoleum is a different matter. If it is a cheap building, then it would be under Waqf Board and if it is an expensive building, generating revenue, then the Indian government will take the money.”
Â
Â