MEERUT:

are no more a part of this country, they are like tenants here. However, if Muslims are loved like the people of other

religion

, we are ready to even support BJP," cleric Qari Shaafiq-ur-Rehman said in his Eid address at the Shahi Idgah in

.

Qari refers to a person who recites the

Quran

at a mosque. Referring to the recent political slugfest on Mahatma Gandhi and his assassin Nathuram Godse, Rehman added: "The country does not belong to Gandhi anymore. It instead belongs to the killer of Gandhi - Godse."

Meerut shehr qazi Zainus Sajidin said, "It's sad that Mahatma Gandhi is being put in a bad light and Godse is being made a hero by the likes of Pragya Thakur. It is dangerous that people like her were given ticket and have now become a Parliamentarian." Both Rehman and Sajidin addressed the masses from the Shahi Idgah as a part of the Eid tradition, in which the minority community is given a message from their religious heads."We live in a democratic country where people chosen by the masses form the government. Whether they are communal or secular, it is our responsibility to save the Constitution and the democratic structure of the country," said Sajidin.

"We should voice our opinion and stand firm with our ideologies because this is what a democratic structure demands," the cleric said.