Azam Khan: 'I am well within my rights to write to the UN'

'I have tried to draw the UN's attention to the very obvious attempt of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convert a secular India into a theocratic Hindu State.'

Sharat Pradhan reports from Lucknow.

"Thousands of people write to the UN every day. So I am well within my rights as a citizen of India to raise a serious issue," Uttar Pradesh Minority Affairs Minister Azam Khan says about his letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

The controversial Samajwadi Party leader clarified that he had written to Ban about the Dadri lynching incident and the Modi government's stand on India's minorities in his personal capacity, and therefore the letter was not written on his official letterhead.

"I have tried to draw the UN's attention to the very obvious attempt of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convert a secular India into a theocratic Hindu State," Khan added.

Speaking at an event in Lucknow on Wednesday, October 7, Khan accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of using the Dadri incident to divide voters in the Bihar state assembly election.

"This is not just a conspiracy, but a well orchestrated strategy to polarise the Bihar election," Khan said at an event to felicitate meritorious Urdu students at the chief minister's official residence in Lucknow.

Refuting the BJP's claim that 'development' alone was its poll issue in Bihar, Khan said 'development' had been replaced by the 'calf'.

"BJP leaders have been harping on this issue ever since they succeeded in their mission of inciting communal passions through the gruesome killing of an innocent man in Dadri," he said.

Referring to the statements issued against him by BJP leaders like Sadhvi Prachi, Sakshi Maharaj and Yogi Adityanath, who suggested that the UP minister be banished to Pakistan, Azam Khan said, "When I did not go to Pakistan in 1947, how can I even think of going there now?"

"All this is part of a dirty design to vitiate the atmosphere," Khan alleged, "While they may succeed in their game in Bihar, we will never allow them to succeed in UP."