After criticism, #IamAsadOwaisi trends

Hyderabad: Hashtag IamAsadOwaisi started trending on Twitter on Tuesday after AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi drew criticism from certain quarters for expressing his dissent with the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya land dispute.

Twitter handles ‘Giraftar karo Owaisi ko’ and ‘anti-national Owaisi’ started trending on Twitter. In response, party workers, followers and youngsters came out in support of the MIM chief and began tweeting #IamAsadOwaisi. Excerpts of his press conference were also widely shared and commented upon.

#IamAsadOwaisi had 98,000 tweets at the time of writing in the evening. In the afternoon, when it began trending, it was at No. 1.

The MIM chief has been very articulate and pointing out over the last two days that the struggle was not for land at Ayodhya but for justice. The video repeated in the tweets shows him saying, “Our fight was for a masjid and not five-acre of land. We don’t want this charity.”

Lashing out at all political parties except TRS, Owaisi stated that everyone was silent on the majoritarain agenda and were not strengthening India’s pluralism.

“The Supreme Court in its order has said that the masjid was demolished. It has caused us a lot of hurt. You do not know how much passion and love we have for that masjid. You do not understand our pain and you do not know where we are coming from. Had you understood why we pursued (the cause of masjid), why we have so much of patience, you would not have said take these 5 acres of land,” he stated.

Those opposed to Owaisi’s views want him arrested for his statements. He wants to know what they have against him and the community. “I have become thick-skinned and people can say whatever they want to,” he remarked. The MIM chief said, “You cannot stop us from talking. I have a right to voice my opinion according to the Constitution.” This got many of netizens irritated but many of Owaisi’s followers took to Twitter from 2 pm on Tuesday to make his videos viral.