All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi has a few questions to the Shiv Sena.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi has a few questions to the Shiv Sena.
When farmers are dying in hundreds in Marathwada, why is it that the Sena is more interested in calling him and his party names is the first.
Owaisi was talking to dna after the Sena alleged that the AIMIM was inciting hatred among Muslims and likened the Owaisi brothers and their party to "a snake pit" and "communal poison."
"Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who directed the 26/11 Mumbai massacre was released on bail, still why is the Sena not protesting?" goes the second poser.
"Sena's Anant Geete shares space in the Union cabinet with two Muslims -- Najma Heptulla and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Their own leader's (Bal Thackeray's) doctor was a Muslim. The prime minister says all religions and faiths are treated equally. What is all this contradiction?" is the third.
The Sena had also said Muslims should be divested of their voting rights to prevent them from being used as vote banks. To this, Owaisi asked the next question: "Does the Sena want Heptullah and Naqvi also to be disenfranchised?"
"They can call me names, but these are important questions, the answers to which the people of India want to know," said Owaisi. "This is a deliberate ploy to divert attention," charged Owaisi.
During the by-polls to the Bandra (East) assembly seat on Saturday, Sena's Trupti Sawant faced off with Narayan Rane (Congress) and the AIMIM's Raja Rehbar Khan, Asaduddin's younger brother and Telangana MLA Akbaruddin. Akbaruddin created a stir when he dared Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to set foot on the AIMIM stronghold of Hyderabad.
"They can harp about me, but don't forget about these issues... Owaisi hatred can't continue for a long time," he said. He also questioned the Sena's silence on the ban on culling of bulls and bullocks which "will affect the lives and livelihoods of Muslims and Dalits engaged in the slaughter and leather industry".
Owaisi pointed out how Bal Thackeray was disenfranchised as a voter (for six years for inciting hatred between communities during the 1987 Vile Parle assembly by-polls where the party's Dr Ramesh Prabhoo had emerged as the victor).
The AIMIM had fielded 24 nominees in the assembly polls, of which two won.
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