Indian Muslims should develop own political leadership: Owaisi

Hyderabad, May 5 (IANS) AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi said on Tuesday that Muslims in India should develop their independent political leadership to become citizens with rights, instead of being mere voters for “so-called secular parties”.

Reacting to the results of the Assembly elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam, the Hyderabad MP told media persons here that the “so-called secular parties” have failed to stop the BJP.

“I want to reiterate that Muslims should try to create their own independent political leadership. Your vote is getting wasted because you are casting your vote in favour of so-called secular parties that are not secular. They failed to stop the BJP,” he said.

While acknowledging the need to stop fascist and communal forces, he said that this does not mean that there should be no political leadership of Muslims.

“Reposing faith for so many years in so-called secular parties has not given them any development nor eradicated injustice and discrimination. They (the community) should think about the value of their vote. You voted for them in Maharashtra, Bihar, Delhi, and West Bengal, but the BJP won in all these states,” he said.

“These so-called secular parties have not been able to stop the BJP. We have seen this in the past. In Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal played soft Hindutva. The same was done in Maharashtra by Uddhav Thackeray’s party, and to a certain extent by the erstwhile Nationalist Congress Party as well. We have seen the same behaviour in West Bengal by Mamata Banerjee and the All India Trinamool Congress.”

He alleged that Mamata Banerjee treated Muslims of West Bengal only as a vote bank and did nothing to improve their socioeconomic conditions despite being in power for 15 years.

Owaisi noted that West Bengal is the only state in the country where Muslims are in a majority in 60 Assembly constituencies, while there are 20 other segments where Muslims are 30-40 per cent, but still the BJP won there.

Stating that the people of West Bengal have given power to the BJP, he hoped that the BJP government would work for every section of society and stop the marginalisation of Muslims.

He believes that there are many reasons for the Trinamool’s loss. “One of the reasons is SIR. There was a huge anti-incumbency, massive corruption, and huge exploitation of the Muslim community.”

Owaisi stated that the image of Banerjee outside West Bengal as a very liberal and secular leader is completely wrong. “She has exploited the Muslims only as a vote bank. She has not treated them as citizens,” he remarked.

Owaisi recalled that in 1998, the first BJP MP to win in West Bengal was Tapan Sikdar, who was supported by the Trinamool, and he won again in 1999. “Mamata Banerjee was part of the (PM Atal Behari) Vajpayee government as a Railway Minister. She left them and rejoined them. The same is the case with Uddhav Thackeray and AAP. It’s high time Muslims must get united and create their own political leadership. At least you will have a voice to raise against marginalisation, a political representative to talk about injustice, elected MLAs, MPs, and corporators work for the development of their respective constituencies.”

The AIMIM chief thanked the electorate of West Bengal for casting their votes in favour of 11 candidates of his party. “Unfortunately, our candidates could not win the election, but I am thankful to them for exercising their vote, especially in Kandi, where our candidate got a good number of votes,” he said.

Owaisi claimed that the AIMIM has a bright future in West Bengal, especially in areas like Malda and Murshidabad. He said the party will work hard and rectify its mistakes.

On the results in Assam, he said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma displaced nearly 50,000 Muslims but was still able to win the election. “We heard the same voice. We will vote for (Congress leader Gaurav) Gogoi and his party. The net result was that the BJP won. Had Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF won more MLAs, that could have given a stronger voice to Muslims of Assam,” he said.

On SIR, Owaisi questioned why Banerjee did not help those whose votes were deleted in West Bengal. He remarked that her approaching the Supreme Court over the issue was a mere symbolism.

The MP remarked that SIR was done in the constituencies of both Banerjee and DMK leader M. K. Stalin, and they both lost the election. He advised Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to be careful about SIR.

He strongly opposed linking SIR with the citizenship, but urged people to remain alert and ensure mapping with the 2002 voter list.

–IANS

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