KTR can\'t be blamed for Faruqui show fallout: Owaisi

HYDERABAD: It was wrong to blame TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao for the events that transpired in the city over the past few days and the tension that the people of the city had to go through following BJP MLA T. Raja Singh’s video about one community and the Prophet, All India Majlis-Ee-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said. He also said the BJP “has done a surgical strike on the Old City,” through this episode.

Owaisi was responding to a question on how there appeared to be a point of view spreading among the people that Rama Rao should have stepped in to stop stand-up comic Munawar Faruqui’s show in the city, and that had the show not been held things would not have come to a pass where the city found itself on tenterhooks for two days.

In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, Owaisi said allowing the show was a decision taken by the government and it was wrong to blame one person for what followed. “The thing is that no one should be allowed to hold the city to ransom, no matter what. This situation was brought upon all citizens of Hyderabad because of one BJP MLA’s video. If one person is allowed to hold the city to ransom, tomorrow another person may well want to do the same, saying ‘I want this’, or ‘I don’t want that’,” Owaisi said.

On Faruqui, Owaisi said, “I am not in favour of that comedian. Having said that, if someone has an issue with him, then that person could have approached the police to stop the show. If the police did not respond, then the courts could have been approached. You can always make a video, release it about the person you have an issue with, but instead it is about a community, religion, and the Prophet.”

Owaisi added, “That is why I say that no one should be allowed to hold the city to ransom. Irrespective of who that person is, he might be a ‘big Bahubali’, but the city and state are always bigger than any individual. That is why I say it is completely wrong to blame X person or Y person as the cause for what eventually occurred.”

The AIMIM president said the BJP “which did a surgical strike on the Old City, was not realising that this is not a Muslim issue, but an issue of the citizens of Hyderabad who do not want such nonsense to happen in their city. The people of Hyderabad do not want these issues to crop up. They are more concerned about their daily lives, problems such as water logging, traffic, hawkers losing their daily livelihoods, or even those who work in the Hitec city worried if they should go to work, or if they go, can they get back home safely.”

Owaisi said the blowback from the tension was such that people were blaming all politicians. “For instance, hotel owners in the Old City are cursing all politicians saying they had to throw out milk and other ingredients because of early closure orders. Unfortunately, it is the common people who suffered the most, and these include a large number of non-Muslims. The BJP does not realise this.”

“The issue is Raja Singh. Why was he allowed to make that video? He has been making such videos continuously, he is still supported, the BJP is still supporting him,” Owaisi said.