Row erupts over Owaisi’s visit to Aurangzeb tomb

MUMBAI: Stirring the communal pot after the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) short-lived campaign against loudspeakers on mosques, All India Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi paid his respects at the tomb of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at Khuldabad in Aurangabad on Thursday. The BJP claims that the Shiv Sena, which is in a coalition of extremes with the “secular” Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), is unable to respond to this obvious assertion as it has compromised on its commitment to Hindutva for the sake of power.

Any addition in religious polarisation will also have ramifications in communally sensitive Aurangabad and the larger Marathwada region.

The AIMIM, which has a strong base in Hyderabad, entered Maharashtra politics in 2012 by winning 11 seats in the Nanded civic elections. The 2014 assembly elections saw journalist Imtiaz Jaleel win the Aurangabad (Central) seat and in 2019, Jaleel trounced the Shiv Sena’s old warhorse Chandrakant Khaire to be elected as a Lok Sabha MP from the city.

“The question is, what is he (Owaisi) trying to do? What message is he giving to Shivpremis (those who revere Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj) and Hindus?” charged BJP MLA Nitesh Rane. He questioned why the MVA government had not booked Owaisi for sedition. “None of Balasaheb’s (late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray) hardcore Shiv Sainiks have liked this… Shivpremis across Maharashtra and India are angry,” he alleged.

Rane claimed that if the AIMIM legislator was handed over to them for ten minutes, they would teach him a lesson.

Independent legislator Ravi Rana, who had been arrested with his wife Navneet Kaur Rana, an independent Lok Sabha MP from Amravati, for threatening to chant the Hanuman Chalisa outside Thackeray’s family residence at Bandra East, too chided the chief minister over Owaisi. Rana questioned if Uddhav would begin his public meeting in Mumbai on Saturday by chanting the Hanuman Chalisa or by showering flowers on Aurangzeb’s tomb.

However, the Shiv Sena lashed out at Owaisi. “These are not rituals but an attempt to bow before [Aurangzeb’s tomb] to create unease in Maharashtra. Aurangzeb was not some Sufi saint; he was an aggressor who destroyed temples and killed people. I wish to tell them (Owaisi) that the Marathas have put Aurangzeb, who ruled Maharashtra for 25 years, in the ground. The ones, who are politicising the whole thing, too will meet the same end,” said Shiv Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut.

The AIMIM said that the visit was a commonplace one. “There are many dargahs of spiritual leaders at Khuldabad… anyone coming to Khuldabad comes to the mazaar (resting place) of Aurangzeb. There is no need to interpret this differently,” Jaleel had said after the visit.

“This is nothing new or unusual. The Owaisi brothers often go to dargahs. But due to social media, what was a private affair, is now public knowledge… they have visited this tomb in the past as well. Since 2014, such things have been happening, like wearing the hijab had become a public discourse,” said a senior AIMIM leader. Senior journalist and analyst Hemant Desai said that it was an obvious attempt to energise the Muslims. “It must be noted that Owaisi targeted the MNS in his speech and ignored the Shiv Sena, which is the principal antagonist of the AIMIM in Aurangabad. The BJP too wants the MNS to grow. Hence, it is an obvious noora kushti (staged fight) here. The MNS, BJP and AIMIM are ranged together against the MVA,” he explained.