AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Credit: PTI File Photo
AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi never minces words while attacking the BJP. As he embarks on a mission to get re-elected from Hyderabad this election season, the BJP has fielded internet sensation and social activist Kompella Madhavi Latha to challenge him. In an interview with DH’s S N V Sudhir, Owaisi stated that the saffron party has been spreading lies about Muslim reservations. Excerpts:
How do you respond to all the debates that are going around reservations to Muslims? Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself said quota to Muslims based on faith and religion are against the Constitution.
The BJP is trying to spread hatred against Muslims and the whole world knows that. The Muslim reservation, wherever it is given in Telangana, Andhra or it was tried to be given in Maharashtra or any other states was not given based on religion. There is an empirical study of the social, mutual, and educational backwardness of the caste among Muslims. Based on study the reservation was given to them. Now the BJP is spreading a wrong message that someone’s share has been denied or it was taken from them. This is completely wrong. It is not unconstitutional. When they were in alliance with N Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra, reservation continued. Bifurcation happened. Now will Modi tell his ally Naidu that we must not give reservations or will Naidu have the intellectual honesty to stand up and say I will not listen to Modi?
Your opponent from BJP, Madhavi Latha, has alleged that you won by spreading fear and there has been no development in Hyderabad. How do you see these comments?
The BJP had to either replace a candidate or nominate someone outside the party. Madhavi Latha was working with RSS leader Indresh Kumar, so they opted for her. However, her gesture of directing an imaginary arrow at a mosque has exposed her. Those who engage in such actions are the enemies of Hyderabad and Telangana. This behaviour, along with Modi’s latest speech, where he referred to Muslims as ‘guzpatis’ and stating that Hindu women’s Mangalsutras would be taken and given to Muslims, further exposes the BJP in a negative light.
During his latest visit to the city, Union minister Amit Shah had given a call that Hyderabad should be freed from the clutches of Razakars, indirectly referring to you. What do you say about that?
Whenever Amit Shah lands in Hyderabad, he starts suffering from stomach ache and that stomach ache can only be decreased when he starts talking about MIM, liberation or it has become a den of illegal migrants or of Rohingyas and then liberation from Razakars. So that is what the BJP has been doing. This is nothing new to us. In the last municipal poll, Shah had campaigned for BJP and lost very badly. The people of Hyderabad will give a befitting reply to him for casting aspersions on May 13.
Why are you not part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc?
Our Maharashtra president has twice publicly asked this question. God knows they (I.N.D.I.A. bloc) should answer that question as to why they don’t want us. I don’t know.
Congress has alleged that you work clandestinely with the BJP as a vote cutter in Muslim areas to benefit the saffron party. What is your response?
The problem is that they didn’t give a single ticket for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Not a single Muslim candidate in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. In 10 to 11 states, they don’t give tickets to any Muslim. And then their leaders are jumping ship. How long are they going to blame me? They lost Amethi. Who cut their vote? Was it the Muslim vote or the Hindu vote? They must have the moral courage to say that we lost because of the Hindu vote. So this is nothing but a covetous blame game.