Hyderabad, May 5 (PTI) AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday accused political parties, including the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC of playing “soft Hindutva” and wanted Muslims to create an independent political leadership.
Secular parties will not be able to stop the BJP’s expansion, he said and claimed that the Trinamool Congress lost the West Bengal elections due to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral votes and “exploitation of Muslims.” The Hyderabad MP’s remarks came a day after the BJP ended Banerjee’s 15-year stint in power in West Bengal, winning 207 of the 293 Assembly seats in the two-phased elections held last month.
Owaisi claimed that the Aam Admi Party (AAP), Shiv Sena (UBT), the erstwhile NCP in Maharashtra and the TMC in West Bengal tried to “play soft Hindutva” in the past and that Muslims should try to “create independent political leadership”.
“It is high time that Muslims must get united and create their own political leadership to at least have a voice to raise their marginalisation,” and to have elected representatives who can work for development, the AIMIM leader claimed.
There were many reasons for TMC’s loss in West Bengal and SIR was one of them, he told reporters here.
However, there was “huge” anti-incumbency, corruption and “exploitation “of Muslim community during the TMC regime, he alleged. Attacking TMC, he said there would have been development in West Bengal had the party treated “Muslims as citizens and not as a vote bank”.
He said the West Bengal voters’ verdict in favour of BJP must be respected and the so-called “secular parties” will not be able to stop the saffron party’s expansion, he said. Votes cast for such parties were going “waste,” he added.
Owaisi, who responded to the assembly election results, thanked voters who cast their votes in favour of AIMIM in West Bengal though all the 11 candidates fielded by the party lost.
“The people of West Bengal have given power to the BJP. We have to respect that decision. It is the people’s decision. Thirdly, I am of the opinion that I have been consistently saying that these so-called secular parties will not be able to stop BJP,” he added.
Why did the TMC and the government led by it did not help those whose names were removed from electoral rolls during SIR, he asked.
The TMC approached the Supreme Court against SIR but it was symbolism, he alleged.
The AIMIM was helping people in its headquarters in Hyderabad vis-a-vis SIR, he said. “It is wrong to link SIR with citizenship.” Owaisi thanked the Almighty as the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) won 22 seats in Kerala. IUML is part of the Congress-led UDF that clinched the Assembly polls held in Kerala on April 9.
Alleging that the government led by Himanta Biswa Sarma got about 50,000 Muslims “displaced” in Assam, he said that had the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) led by Badruddin Ajmal won more seats, it would have given “stronger voice” to the Muslims.
Attacking Sarma for his alleged comments in an interview that some 1,000 people were pushed into Bangladesh during night time, Owaisi asked whether Ministry of Home Ministry gave permission for it.
Sarma is behaving like the External Affairs Minister and it will hurt India’s relations with Bangladesh, he alleged.
Owaisi also said he has written a letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw seeking an impartial inquiry and providing compensation and a government job for the family of one Maulana Tauseef Raza Mazhari who was allegedly killing in a moving train in Uttar Pradesh.
The “murder” of the person is a hate crime, he added. PTI SJR SJR KH SA
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