There is no mention of Obaidullah in the Fatwa so there is no space to accuse another regarding Luzum and Iltizam.
To praise Hindu Gods is Kufr. To beautify any of their actions is Kufr.
so the former fatwa is only at a generic level that to praise hindu deities and to beautify their actions is kufr. no Muslim disagrees with that.
it does not contain the name of Obaidullah Khan.
as per Obaidullah's defense in his istifta to Mufti Nizamuddin, and as per Mufti Nizamuddin Sahab's answer: his (Obaidullah's) praising of ram was not a praise but rather an indictment to the hindus, "you say you follow ram. as per your ideology, ram stood for truth and honesty and peace. where's your truth and honesty and peace?". of course these are my words and Obaidullah said it more diplomatically.
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do you have a fatwa by Mufti Akhtar Raza Sahab on the SPECIFIC case of Obaidullah Khan?
surely, we can't have it both ways. when asked about Akhtar Raza sahab's response to the
specific case of specific speech by Obaidullah, someone flashes the
generic fatwa on praising hindu deities. and when cross questioned about it, people can say it never was specific to Obaidullah. that's just preposterous!
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the former fatwa cites Fatawa Ridawiyya's Vol 14, Pg 625. maybe there are different prints or the cited page number is incorrect, but that particular page doesn't seem to contain that text.
if someone can find the quoted text in its correct locationin Fatawa Ridawiyya, please bring it forward.
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all this raises other questions:
1 - can or should Muslims participate in the political process of countries like india or uk or usa, etc.?
2 - if yes, what is the limit of diplomatic tones they can adopt in such political discourses? sure, i would love to hear a Mard-e-Momin grab the microphone at a bjp-sena rally and say "we don't follow the beef ban. i declare tomorrow a slaughter-a-cow day for all Muslims of maharashtra. catch us if you can." but the ground reality is different and in modern secular politics and democracies, most Muslims can't adopt such tones for a multitude of right and wrong reasons. so we need exact guidelines on just how far can diplomatic tones go?
3 - when participating in the political process, what are the guidelines of engaging with kafirs and bad-mazhabs? how far do we go with them? when it comes to being anti-rss, can Sunnis and shias form a unified political front? or when it comes to maintaining peace in india for our sake or standing up against crimes against women, etc. is it ok to participate in a rally together with hindus?
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we need answers from the 3ulema. it's very easy to announce a problem or slap a label. it's excruciatingly hard to provide a PRACTICAL AND WORKABLE Shari3ah compliant solution!
we need our 3ulema to be problem solvers, not just problem announcers.
the beauty of Ala Hazrat and his fatawa is that he was a legendary problem SOLVER for Hanafis. he didn't just announce problems, he offered solutions too.