Not anti-Hindu, but opposed to Sangh Parivar ideology: Akbaruddin Owaisi

Demanding punishment for the accused in the 1992-93 riots, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said if elected, his party MLAs would seek budgetary provisions for minorities. He also promised to push for the UPA government's draft communal violence bill and attacked the Congress and NCP for using Muslims as vote banks.

"Muslims and minorities get step-motherly treatment and are seen as second class citizens," said Owaisi, whose party will field 26 candidates from Muslim-dominated constituencies, including 13 in Mumbai and Thane. Pointing to how Muslim-dominated areas could be identified on the basis of garbage and squalor, he said, "We want to show that Muslims and Dalits are not just vote banks and do something for them."

Claiming that he was neither anti-Hindu nor against any religion, Owaisi said that he was only opposed to the Sangh Parivar's politics and ideology and "those who wanted to convert the country to a Hindu Rashtra".

Sources say the hardline party may attract Muslim youth who are angry with the Congress and NCP. Video clips of Owaisi's earlier hate speeches may help garner votes on emotional issues, said community leaders. Muslims comprise about 10.6 per cent of state's population.

"We want action on the Srikrishna commission report (which probed the 1992-93 riots)," said Owaisi, demanding that cases against those who had been indicted in it be re-opened and the accused be arrested. "The accused in the Mumbai bomb blasts have been convicted while the culprits of the riots have gone unpunished," he complained.

"There is large-scale injustice on minorities, especially Muslims and Dalits," said Owaisi, demanding that minorities get a share of the state budget in proportion to their population.

"In Maharashtra, 85% of Muslims are below the poverty line," he charged, while adding that while only 6.8% of them have bank accounts, only 0.02% had been given loans by banks.
"If the AIMIM succeeds, we will introduce the Communal Violence Bill," said Owaisi, adding that cops who failed to act or stay neutral in cases of communal violence would be punished under this. He also promised legal aid for Muslims, who account for 35-40% of inmates in Maharashtra's jails, and action against policemen who frame innocent Muslims.

The AIMIM has also promised subsidy for the power loom industry in Muslim pockets like Bhiwandi and Malegaon.

The AIMIM which has its roots in the 'Razakars' who supported the Nizam of Hyderabad and resisted the state's integration into India, secured a political opening in the 2012 Nanded civic polls in Marathwada while campaigning on issues like Muslim youth from the Marathwada region being picked up on terror charges and the anti-Muslim violence in Assam,

Attacks Modi over US visit

Owaisi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for paying homage at the 9/11 memorial in New York, while neglecting victims of 2002 Gujarat riots. He objected to the PM gifting a copy of the Bhagwad Gita to his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, saying a copy of the Indian Constitution should have been gifted. "On one hand, when Gujarat was burning and women were being raped they looked on silently... he went to the WTC spot, but did he visit the homes of those who died in Gujarat?"