Bharatiya Janata Party levelled appeasement allegations against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi after the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) came out with an RTI reply asking for details of the salaries paid to Imams by the Delhi government. BJP spokesperson alleged AAP of appeasing a specific religion and paying over Rs 100 Crore to the Waqf board and paying salaries to Imam.

Notably, a 1993 Supreme Court order allows remuneration to Imams in the Mosques in Delhi, which CIC says is a breach of the constitutional provision that the state will not favour a particular religion.

In reply to an RTI query by Subhash Agarwal on the expenses incurred by the Delhi government on the Delhi Wakf Board and the salaries paid to Imams at Mosques, as per the order of the CIC Uday Mahurkar on November 26, it came to light the Wakf Board which earns a considerable income gets reimbursed by the state, which is basically taxpayers money. A majority of this money goes into paying salaries to the Imams in the Mosques and Muezzins in Delhi.

BJP’s appeasement charge against AAP

AAP recently hiked the remuneration paid to the Imams and the clerics in the Mosques in Delhi from ₹10k to ₹18k. Besides setting a bad precedent, CIC Mahurkar said it has resulted in frequent instances of political mudslinging. 

BJP’s Shehzad Poonawalla said, “It’s clear from CIC’s order, the nature of AAP is to do vote bank politics. How the party, in order to please one particular community, increased salaries to Imams from the state’s exchequer. They also splurged over ₹100 Crore on the Waqf board.”

Significantly, while the Imams at the Delhi Mosques are remunerated, there is a lack of similar provision for remuneration to other religious denominations, for priests who administer the prayers at Church or Granthis in the Gurudwaras or the priests who conduct prayers in Temples in Delhi. Thus the CIC said this goes against the secular spirit of the constitution, which impinges on the equality article as enshrined in articles 14, and 19 of the constitution. 

The order, which was forwarded to the union law ministry also asked for the intervention of the centre to ensure the implementation of article 14 and 19 of the constitution followed by Article 25 to 28, which provides for parity between religions and not benefit any one particular community.

Supreme Court order

In the background is the SC order in the case between the All India Imam Organisation and the Union of India under which the apex court made provisions for salary remuneration to the Imams and clerics. 

The CIC stated this order is in contravention of the constitutional provisions of equality between religions and thus there should be a relook by the government.

IMAGE: PTI