Secular parties in U.P. did not speak for Muslims, says Akbaruddin Owaisi
The Hindu
AIMIM celebrates its 64th revival anniversary
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi on Wednesday claimed that none of the secular parties in Uttar Pradesh spoke about Muslims and that the community found no place in party manifestos.
Mr Owaisi was speaking at a public meeting on the occasion of the AIMIM’s 64th Revival Day at party headquarters in Darussalaam.
The AIMIM floor leader said that all parties, including secular parties, want votes of Muslims. However, issues of Muslims are absent in manifestos. He also said that political parties in U.P. and their leaders did not speak about the “India’s largest minority community.”
Mr Owaisi said that people of all faiths should be allowed to wear what they wish, and criticised what he said was a tamasha (commotion) created outside schools and colleges in Karnataka where Muslim women are not being allowed to wear the hijab, and are being threatened for wearing it.
The AIMIM leader said that his party is fighting for the rights of those who were lynched, for those who have been victims of the g har wapsi campaign, and for those who are being oppressed for belonging to the Dalit community. He said that Muslims are equal citizens of the country.
Mr Owaisi criticised the Centre and said that over 15 crore Indians were deprived of a livelihood and sought to know when the country would witness “ achhe din”.
Stressing on the need for digging into history and unearthing the facts about Buddhism in the country, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge questioned why the Krishna, the banks of which provided a lot of clues on Buddha, was neglected in historical research as compared to the Ganga, the Yamuna, and the Cauvery.
Belagavi-based Bharatesh Education Trust will start a new Engineering college from this academic year. The Bharatesh Institute of Technology will come up on the trust premises in Basavana Kudachi near the Belagavi airport in Sambra. The college has been approved by the All-India Council for Technical Eductaion (AICTE) and is affiliated to VTU Belagavi.