AIMIM’s Akbaruddin Owaisi sparks furore following ‘reverential’ visit to Aurangzeb’s tomb

Shiv Sena, NCP question Telangana MLA’s provocative act in ‘Shivaji’s land’; BJP demands Uddhav Thackeray govt. to slap sedition charge against Owaisi  

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader and MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi stirred up a hornet’s nest yet again with his reverential visit to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district, evoking widespread condemnations across Maharashtra’s political spectrum as the ruling Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) among others slammed the AIMIM leader’s ‘provocative act’ in the “land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.”

A five-term MLA from Chandrayangutta in Telangana, Mr. Owaisi, who has frequently courted controversy with his fiery speeches in the past, had prayed before the Mughal Emperor’s tomb in Khuldabad and laid flowers on it ahead of a function in Aurangabad on Thursday.

Following this, the ruling tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ coalition, particularly the Shiv Sena came down heavily on Mr. Owaisi for deliberately attempting to disturb Maharashtra’s peace with his actions, while the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded the ruling government to show some spine and charge the AIMIM leader with sedition.    

Lashing out at the AIMIM leader, Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said that the politics of the Owaisi brothers (alluding to Mr. Owaisi’s brother, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi) appeared merely to disrupt Maharashtra’s social harmony.

“It is only to rile everyone in Maharashtra that he [Akbaruddin Owaisi] deliberately bowed before Aurangzeb’s tomb. But let me remind him, that this Mughal Emperor, who plotted against Maharashtra for such a long time, was put into his grave by the Marathas. Today you are coming here and reciting namaaz before this tomb, sometime later, you [Mr. Owaisi] will have to go into go into a similar grave as well,” said Mr. Raut.

The Sena leader warned that Maharashtra would put the AIMIM leader into his grave in the same way in which Aurangzeb was put into his by the Marathas.

Former BJP MP Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati - a direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji and a royal from Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra – condemned Mr. Owaisi’s action by remarking that it was “highly improper”.