‎
Arash Motamed

Last week President Ahmadinejad once again alluded to the relations between his ‎administration and Imam Mahdi who is believed by Shiites to be in occultation. He said, ‎‎“The real manager of the government is in reality Imam Mahdi and not the president. … ‎The hand of the Imam guides and manages the government.”‎

These remarks brought about responses from groups across the Iranian political spectrum. ‎Not only reformists, but even some prominent personalities in the conservatist camp (to ‎which the President himself belongs to) criticized Ahmadinejad for his words. A senior ‎Majlis representative from the majority faction and the spokesperson for the powerful ‎Jame Rohaniyate Mobarez (Association of the Militant Clergy) group which is an ‎influential organization within the conservative camp Gholamreza Mesbahchi Moghadam ‎pointed to the disorderly economic conditions of Iran and said, “If by these remarks the ‎president means that Imam Mahdi supports the behavior of this administration, then one ‎must say that this is completely wrong. The Imam certainly does not approve of a 20 ‎percent inflation rate and so does not support it, as he would not many other issues, ‎including mistakes and mismanaged conditions that exist around the country.”‎

Another Majlis deputy Madani Bejestani said this in response to Ahmadinejad’s claims, ‎‎“We do not deny that the holy Imams are monitoring everything and do not reject the ‎existence of hidden divine assistance in support of the revolution. But by attributing ‎everything in the country to the Imams we are also attributing the mistakes that our ‎officials in the Majlis, government and judiciary may make to the divinity. So we must be ‎very careful in not damaging the divine institution.” Yet another Majlis deputy, Ali ‎Asghari from Mashhad also criticized Ahmadinejad in these words, “We are aware that ‎Mr. Ahmadinejad is associating his management of the country to that of the Imam ‎Mahdi. But in reality is this how the Imam would have managed the affairs? It would be ‎better for Mr. Ahmadinejad to remain accountable for the issues in society, such as ‎inflation and rising costs.”‎

Mehdi Karubi, the former Majlis speaker and current secretary general of reformist ‎Etemad Melli party, who remains a potential rival to Mr. Ahmadinejad in next year’s ‎presidential race, also reacted to the president’s claims regarding Imam Mahdi. While ‎stressing that “we must not associate the current unfavorable conditions in the country to ‎Imam Mahdi,” said, “Is it Imam Mahdi’s rule that has resulted in the doubling of housing ‎prices since last year or the suffering that people face because of inflation and rising ‎prices?” Referencing Ahmadinejad’s remarks at Columbia University in New York when ‎he made similar claims, Karubi said, “I must admit that a number of Iranian diplomats ‎told me while expressing their disappointment at these remarks that the words in reality ‎tarnished our image. And still, Mr. Ahmadinejad insists that Imam Mahdi was running ‎the events at the time.” ‎

But perhaps the most interesting response to the president’s remarks came from none ‎other than Mahdavi Kani, also a former Majlis speaker and current secretary general of ‎the powerful Jamiyate Rohaniyate Mobarez (a radical clerical grouping). According to ‎Tabnak news website in his ethics class at Imam Sadegh University, Kani said this in ‎response to a question by a student: “Mr. Ahmadinejad should not be saying such things ‎because it creates a negative impression of Imam Mahdi in the eyes of the public.” ‎According to Tabnak’s reporter Kani then asked this question: “If it was Imam Mahdi ‎who was running the show, then does this mean that he cannot get rid of the mafia? Is the ‎‎5,000 Toman price for rice also his doing?” He concluded his reference by saying that ‎‎“With all his greatness, Imam Khomeini never made such remarks about Imam Mahdi.”‎