Owaisi’s sharp message in Nagpur rally, “Muslims are not just voters, build their political power”

Tezzbuzz Desk- All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, while addressing a massive rally organized in Nagpur, raised sharp questions about the political participation and leadership of the Muslim community. He said that almost every society in India and Maharashtra has its own political leadership, but if any community does not have effective political agency, it is the Muslims.

Owaisi said, “We have become only voters. If you remain only voters, bulldozers will run on your house. If you remain only voters, the youth will be sent to jail on false charges. If you remain only voters, the children of Muslims will be deprived of better education.”

He further said that merely remaining a vote bank will neither bring justice nor respect in the society. “The day you develop your political agency, you will understand that a citizen of this country is bigger than just a voter with his rights,” Owaisi stressed.

Owaisi accused all major political parties, including BJP, Ajit Pawar faction and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, of trying to get votes from Muslims by intimidating them. He also attacked Congress and said that Congress wants Muslims to remain only as voters, so that they cannot get anything done on their own terms. “You have to build your own political power,” he said.

Owaisi had come in support of 17 candidates of AIMIM in this rally organized near the revered Sufi shrine of Baba Tajuddin Auliya in Tajbagh. The gathering, organized in view of the upcoming Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections, attracted a crowd of around 15,000 people who welcomed Owaisi with applause and slogans. This was his second visit to the dargah. On this occasion, he said that Congress has always refrained from accepting and empowering Muslim leadership.

Owaisi held both Congress and BJP responsible for the alleged misuse of strict laws like UAPA. He said that UAPA was brought during the tenure of Manmohan Singh and he had opposed its Section 15A only then. “I had warned that it would be used against Muslims, Dalits and tribals,” Owaisi said.

He alleged that the BJP later added provisions that gave the NIA the power to declare any person a ‘terrorist’, and the Congress supported these amendments. Regarding the changes made in the Waqf Act, Owaisi said that these amendments have been brought to capture mosques and dargahs. He also alleged that under the new rules no new property can now be brought under Waqf.

This speech of Owaisi is being seen as AIMIM’s political strategy before the Nagpur Municipal Corporation elections and an attempt to politically organize the Muslim community.