Maulana Ghulam Muhammad Vastanvi

The Majlis-e-Shoora has rightly rejected the offer of Dar-ul-Ulum-Deoband Chief Maulana Ghulam Muhammad Vastanvi to step down from his post . With this he stands vindicated at least for the time being till the committee exonerates Maulana Vastanvi of the charges against him alleged by his detractors. In fact, the din against the forward-looking Dar-ul-Ulum-Deoband Chief Maulana Ghulam Muhammad Vastanvi is much ado about nothing. The controversy appears aimed at silencing the moderate voices among the Indian Muslims. His critics in Dar-ul-Ulum-Deoband seem to be spearheading the smear campaigning against him to unseat the saner voice and to score some brownie points as the solitary saviours of Islam. In the process, the hardliners on both sides of the fence would be the winners and truth will be the lone looser. Everyone knows that he is no `Uncle Tom’, who had `betrayed' his community, as has been made out to be. But the smear campaign to paint him a ‘traitor of the community’ is aimed with diabolic designs and political motives. It is also obvious from this that the hardliners from among the Muslims do not want the ordinary Muslims to come out of the Ghetto and the minority persecution complex. Ironically, it is the Modi who must be smiling at the turn of events as he stands to derive maximum political mileage out of it.