Owaisi Gives Clarion Call to Fight for Protecting India’s Pluralism
Muslims, who lost a masjid to vandalism, desecration and eventual demolition, expected that their rights would be respected. Instead, the whole dispute was treated as a symbol to humiliate Muslims for the perceived historical wrongs committed by their ancestors
Mohd Aasif | NEW DELHI
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi has called on his countrymen to strive to protect India’s pluralism and diversity. India belongs to all and it is the common heritage of our forefathers.
He made the call at the virtual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) on Monday.
“When people asked me that what is the way forward, I would only tell you that the way forward is to protect India’s pluralism and diversity which India’s constitution has guaranteed to every Indian citizen. And I am sure that all the Indians who believe in this strength and beauty will come together and ensure that we have an India of the dreams of our forefathers when they got independence in 1947. And I am sure, I will live to see that day,” he said.
Coming down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Owaisi, who represents Hyderabad in Parliament, said it was working on the fascist agenda of the RSS. “The BJP is the part of a larger movement known as Hindutva which is rabidly anti-Muslim and the BJP has repeatedly mobilised public opinion against Muslim citizens. Its agenda has consistently sought to marginalise Muslims in India further and to deny them the rights to equal citizenship. To this end, it began a movement to reclaim temples and which were perceived to have been demolished and replaced by medieval Muslim emperors.”
Referring to the controversy surrounding Babri masjid, he said it was used to subjugate Muslims. The Supreme Court handed over the mosque’s possession to the very people who had conspired to demolish it in 1992. “Muslims, who lost a masjid to vandalism, desecration and eventual demolition, expected that their rights would be respected. Instead, the whole dispute was treated as a symbol to humiliate Muslims for the perceived historical wrongs committed by their ancestors. When the Prime Minister went to participate in the ceremony, the message was that a conqueror has righted the past wrongs and ensured Muslims their place. Yes, as Indian Muslims, we respect and accept the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court of India is a final apex court. But, as a retired famous late Supreme Court Judge has said, the Supreme Court is supreme but not infallible.”
Owaisi reminded his audience of the sufferings of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Last year, the Modi government stripped the state of its autonomy, bifurcated it and converted it to a federally-governed territory. For over a year, the Kashmiri people have lived with severe restrictions to normal life. For over a year, eight million people have been forced to live without any modern means of communication, having to sometimes depend on landlines to communicate with each other.”
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said, was another divisive act of the present regime. India’s citizenship was based on birth, naturalisation and descent. The ruling party enacted the CAA which explicitly excludes Muslim refugees from becoming citizens of India. Furthermore, the government sought to introduce a national register of citizens (NRC) which would require Indian citizens to prove their citizenship through documentation. Those who do not possess such evidence are likely to be marked as doubtful citizens, he said.
Owaisi also referred to the hardships the people of Assam, specially Muslims, were facing because of NRC. “An NRC which happened in Assam under the expert supervision of the Honourable Supreme Court of India, the final list which came out excluded 2 million people. Now, in that, five hundred thousand were Muslims. The BJP government in Assam said, ‘we will give citizenship to all 1.5 million non-Muslims under the Citizenship Amendment Act which was passed by the Indian Parliament and we will not give it to Muslims of Assam.”
Muslims in India faced systemic and structural discrimination, he said, adding, they are the poorest religious groups and their poverty has only increased with each generation. Despite the economic and social discrimination, Indian Muslims resisted the law in an extremely peaceful democratic manner. “However, the ruling party’s response was to use state machinery to persecute Muslims,” he said.
He also brought in focus the anti-Muslim policies of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and massacre of Muslims in Delhi in February. “Over 50 people were killed in Delhi riots. Majority of them were Muslims and hundreds of Hindus and Muslims lost their property in targeted acts of arson and loot. Over 16 mosques and Madrasas and religious structures of Muslims were desecrated,” he recounted.
According to Owaisi, the message of the Delhi riot was to teach Muslims a lesson. He mentioned the death of Mohammad Faizan. He, along with four other Muslim boys were forced by the police to recite the national anthem while they were in pain. So far not a single Delhi policeman has been arrested. “This death of Faizan can be compared to George Floyds’ death in your country. When George Floyd was killed by the police, America erupted. People came out in hundreds and thousands for George Floyd’s justice. But I did not see that for 23-year-old Faizan.”
He said the actual instigators of the the Delhi riots have not even been investigated, let alone, prosecuted.