Asad hits out at Congress, slams Pranab’s RSS speech

MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday questioned the secularism of the Congress in supporting the visit of former President Pranab Mukherjee to the RSS headquarters.

“The Congress should explain the visit of its leader to the RSS headquarters. The Congress says it is a secular party and described the former President’s address at the RSS headquarters as sagacious. I seek an explanation from them,” he said.

Addressing a gathering at the Youmul Quran programme at the historic Macca Masjid, he also took objection to Mr Mukherjee’s remarks that RSS founder K.B. Hedgewar was “a great son of India”.

Mr Owaisi said Mr Mukherjee had twice won his seat from the Murshidabad parliamentary constituency where Muslims constitute 70 per cent of the voters. “The Congress and the BJP are two faces of the same coin,” he said indicating that the third front was an alternative. “We should strengthen regional parties in 2019 as both national parties have miserably failed to deliver,” he added.

Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Owaisi said that ever since the BJP-led government came to power, about 390 persons had died in the communal violence. “There is an increase of about 40 per cent in incidents of communal violence in the country during the last four years. About 28 persons were lynched in various instances on allegations cow slaughter across the country. Is this justice,” he asked.

He reiterated that linking Muslims with Muhammad Ali Jinnah showed the hatred of the BJP towards the community. “Those who wanted to be with Jinnah left the country during partition for Pakistan. After 70 years, people still ask us (Muslims) our loyalty towards the nation. The Constitution provides us equal opportunities and will not be afraid of anyone and will continue to live here,” Mr Owaisi said.

He condemned the renaming of cities and locations across the country. “The government should know that Mughal architecture marvels bring in more revenue than any other tourist place in the country. Renaming of Mughalsarai Junction as Pandit Deendayal Upadhya Junction sets a bad example,” he said.

Mr. Owaisi also came down on the right wing groups for targeting journalists for writing against them. “The United Nations Human Rights Council has condemned the threats being made to senior journalist Rana Ayub. The Prime Minister should intervene and save the face of the country,” he said.