AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi addressing a gathering during the Jalsa Rahmatuil-lil-Alameen-2023 at Darussalam, in Hyderabad on Sunday night. | Photo Credit: PTI
Maintaining that the Congress’ legacy in Hyderabad was that of communal riots, Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi late on Sunday launched an attack on the party and dared Rahul Gandhi to contest from Hyderabad.
The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader was speaking at the Jalsa Rahmatul lil Alameen, an annual public meeting ahead of Milad-un-Nabi, where he sought to compare the Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s work in Telangana with that of Congress-ruled states.
“I am telling your leader (Rahul Gandhi) to come here and not Wayanad. You make tall claims but come here and compete with a man who wears a sherwani and a beard and topi,” Mr Owaisi said, adding, “The communal riots in Hyderabad is the legacy of the Congress. The suffering of innocents is the legacy of the Congress.”
Mr.Owaisi claimed that the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are in cahoots with each other. The AIMIM’s opposition to the Women’s Reservation Bill was on grounds of reservations not being accorded to women belonging to Muslim and Other Backward Communities (OBC), he said.
The AIMIM chief sought to know from BJP Telangana chief G.Kishan Reddy his stand on reservations for OBC women. “Reddy gaaru, should women from OBC community not be given reservations,” he asked.
Intensifying his attack on the Congress, and expressing his support for the BRS, Mr.Owaisi sought to compare the minorities budget in Telangana and Rajasthan. He claimed that while the budget for minorities in Congress-ruled Rajasthan was ₹250 crore, in Telangana it was around ₹2,200 crore. Referring to the Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society, he said over 80,000 boys and girls were studying in schools run by that body, and asked the government to show how many were studying in Rajasthan.
Mr.Owaisi expressed grave concerns over Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kunwar Danish Ali being abused by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri in Parliament. “A day will come in Parliament when a Muslim will be lynched by a mob. That day is not far,” he said even as he challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to translate and send Mr.Bidhuri’s utterances in Parliament to Arab and Turkish leaders.
In a separate development, Mr.Owaisi, at a party meeting on Monday, continued his attack on the Congress. He claimed that the Congress and the BJP were two sides of the same coin and blamed the Congress for the BJP’s rise to power. “The BJP with PM Modi came to power for the second time, and is spreading hatred; it is because of them [Congress]. If the Congress would have been fair, then how could the BJP have come to power? During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, there was a direct contest between the Congress and BJP; no other party was there. How many did Congress win? 16. The situation has not changed even now,” he said.
Touching upon the elections in Telangana, Mr.Owaisi urged the public to vote for the AIMIM, and where it has no candidate, to vote for “sorry”referring to Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao.
