‘Making Muslims scapegoat for Mamata’s failure’: Owaisi hits out at Kishor ‘appeasement’ clip
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Politics

‘Making Muslims scapegoat for Mamata’s failure’: Owaisi hits out at Kishor ‘appeasement’ clip

Owaisi was referring to audio clips released by BJP where Prashant Kishor is purportedly heard addressing journalists during an interaction on invite-only chat app Club House.

Neelam Pandey    
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi is welcomed by supporters at Sagardighi Railway Station in Murshidabad, in March 2021 | ANI

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi is welcomed by supporters at Sagardighi Railway Station in Murshidabad, in March 2021 | ANI

New Delhi: AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi Saturday lashed out at political strategist Prashant Kishor, who has tied up with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the ongoing assembly polls, for purported claims about a culture of minority appeasement in the state.

In a series of tweets, Owaisi alleged that Muslims of Bengal remained lacking on many parameters, including government jobs and education. 

Owaisi was referring to four audio clips released by the BJP Saturday where Kishor is purportedly heard addressing journalists during an interaction on the invite-only chat app Club House. 

BJP social media chief Amit Malviya claimed Kishor had claimed during the interaction that internal surveys of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) predict a BJP win.

In one of the clips, Kishor is also purportedly heard talking about the politics of “minority appeasement” in India over the past 20 years. In Bengal the Congress, the Left and the TMC have all worked to secure the Muslim vote, he purportedly said, adding that politics in Bengal is driven by the belief that whoever Muslims vote for wins.

Kishor subsequently weighed in on the clips on Twitter, and accused the BJP of picking up select comments and distorting the context.  

Taking to Twitter, Owaisi, whose party is contesting seven seats in its maiden Bengal outing this year, said rather than “introspecting” on how Mamata allowed communalism to take root in the state, Kishor is choosing to “scapegoat“ Muslims for her failures. 

Also Read: Why Prashant Kishor can’t plug the breach inside Mamata’s fort in West Bengal

‘Allah protect us from such appeasement’

In a long Twitter thread, Owaisi said Muslims constitute 27 per cent of Bengal’s population but “have only 6% govt jobs”. “Only 11% of students in higher education are Muslims & 80% of rural Muslims earn less than ₹5k. 6 worst performing districts on healthcare have a Muslim population share of more than 25%,” he added. 

Owaisi also accused the Left, which ruled Bengal for over 30 years before Mamata routed them, of mistreating Muslims. 

“People in Malda, Murshidabad, etc have to drink arsenic contaminated water. These are fruits of ‘blatant appeasement’,” he said.

“Truth is TMC & Left’s most loyal voters have got nothing but humiliation for decades. In return for their loyalty @MamataOfficial has likened Muslims to cows to be milked. Now she has to beg Muslims to not divide their votes. If there’s appeasement then why this begging?” he added. 

Owaisi also referred to the recent episode where Mamata Banerjee revealed her gotra. “Why does @MamataOfficial go everywhere to talk about her Gotra & high place in varna system? She told Muslims that she’ll protect them from Hindutva but her strategist is confessing how she let Hindutva grow. She’d one job & she failed. Allah protect us from such appeasement.”

Owaisi also questioned why not a single journalist attending the session had challenged the “blatant lie” of minority appeasement. 

Also Read: Prashant Kishor is seen as an election magician. But he wins only when in winning team