Owaisi challenges BJP to show names of 100 Rohingya refugees in voters\' list

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday challenged the BJP to show the names of 100 Rohingya refugees on the voters’ list, after a BJP leader had claimed that 40,000 Rohingya had succeeded in getting listed as voters.

Speaking at election meetings in Mallepally and Red Hills on Sunday night, Owaisi asked that if Rohingya were present in the city in that large numbers, why were Union home minister Amit Shah, the home ministry and the Intelligence Bureau quiet. “What are they doing? Exile them. What is the connection with us,” Owaisi asked.

He asked whether he had prepared the voters’ list at Darussalam, the MIM headquarters. The purpose of the propaganda, of claiming that Rohingya had enlisted as voters, was to create hatred between Hindus and Muslims, Owaisi said. “They should know that the UN and the Government of India have issued identity cards to the refugees.”

In municipal elections, our opponents are targeting us and raising national and international issues instead of talking on local problems.

Owaisi said the TRS had joined with the opponents of the MIM, and claiming that there was no alliance. “Who approached you for friendship,” Owaisi asked the TRS adding, “Go and contest against us and we will fight with you also. We are contesting elections in all of India. The era of fear has ended. We are ready to confront (anyone) electorally at any place. If you are not willing to continue our friendship, we also do not need you.”

He said that his opponents targeted him and his party all the time “thinking we are soft targets, just like ‘Gareeb ki joru sab ki bhabhi (The poor man’s wife is everyone’s sister-in-law)’.” He said, “If TRS does not want to continue our friendship, it is okay as we never extended our hand towards the TRS. We are facing opposition all over India and we are not afraid of criticism.”

He said that it was easy for every leader and every party to simply target him and and think that they do not need to show their performance or progress card. “They think that by targeting Owaisi and MIM, they can mislead the people and skip answering questions about their performance,” the MIM chief said.

Owaisi said that the BJP had released its manifesto without a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but one of Owaisi himself. “This is our power,” he said.

He criticised the Sangh Parivar and the BJP for crying of ‘jihad’. “They have coined terms like ‘corona jihad’, ‘UPSC jihad’, ‘land Jihad’ and now ‘love jihad’. Youth fall in love, and do not indulge in jihad,” Owaisi said.

“According to the Supreme Court, an individual’s choice is a fundamental right,” Owaisi said. He opposed the idea of framing laws against inter-religious marriages, terming it as a “political drama” to distract the attention of youth from the issue of unemployment. “It is contrary to the Constitution,” the MIM chief said.