Majlis leader criticizes Modi for invoking Gandhi during his New York speech saying RSS links to Mahatma’s killers are well known



MALEGAON (Ummid) — Taking potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ and terming the widely highlighted campaign a mere ‘eyewash’ and ‘show-off’, Member of Parliament from Hyderabad and President of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Asaduddin Owaisi Thursday asked the BJP-led government to first clear its stand on anti-Muslim hate campaign run by party leaders.

“You are leading campaigns to clean India of garbage, dirt and filth. But, who will clean the hatred against Muslims, which is so rampant in the hearts and minds of your party leaders”, Asaduddin Owaisi asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Your party leaders are running campaigns against ‘Love Jihad’ and using ‘terrorism’ to defame Muslims. First get rid of this filth and dirt, and work to remove it from the country”, he said.

Owaisi was addressing a huge rally in Malegaon for AMIM candidate Abdul Malik on Azeez Kallu Stadium ground. It was the same venue where Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar had addressed a rally for Mufti Ismael a week ago. Owaisi’s rally however by all accounts surpassed Sharad Pawar’s rally.

Both the leaders were addressing an election rally for the first time in Malegaon.

Criticizing Modi for invoking Mahatma Gandhi during his New York speech, Owaisi said that “people associated with the RSS” were responsible for his murder.

“In New York, Mr. Prime Minister asks Hum Ne Bapu Ko Kya Diya? I say, three bullets. Yes, it was Nathuram Godse who killed Mahatma Gandhi, and the world knows who was behind the murder”, he said.

Owaisi also took on the Congress-NCP ruling alliance in Maharashtra and blamed the two parties for keeping innocent Muslim youths behind bars for years.

“I am proud to say that our youths whom you arrested in false terror cases are innocent. But, you are responsible for destroying their life”, he said naming each and every accused booked in the 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blasts cases.

He also said that Himayat Baig, who has been sentenced to death in Pune’s German Bakery blast, is innocent and has falsely been implicated in the case.

Owaisi countered the accusations that he is communal by saying the Cong-NCP in fact play communal politics, and they are hand-in-glove with the communal forces.

“In the last 50 years, the number of elected Muslim members in parliament and state assemblies have been far fewer than their population. In 2009 and 2014 parliament elections not a single Muslim could win Lok Sabha elections from the state. Who is responsible for this? It is the Congress and BJP”, he said.

Owaisi also accused the Cong-NCP government of backtracking on its promise to provide employment to Mohsin Shaikh’s brother. Mohsin, an IT engineer, was killed by right wing Hindu extremists in Pune in June 2014.

During his 1 hour-10 minute, high-pitched speech, Owaisi also praised contribution of the people of Malegaon in the freedom struggle of India, and prayed for the seven local heroes, who were hanged by the British army in Pune’s Yerwada Jail. They were accused of being responsible for the April, 1921 uprising in Malegaon.

“But how sad it is that the memorial built for them is still without their names”, he said.