Hyderabad: MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for visiting temples — “mandir hopping — while campaigning in Gujarat and ignoring mosques and dargahs.
Interacting with mediapersons here at his party office here, Mr Owaisi said the temple politics of both parties indicated that they were deliberately attempting to politically marginalise Muslims.
“My question is why both parties deliberately avoided talking about Muslim empowerment and Muslim representation during the election campaign. The proof is that the BJP did not give a single ticket to Muslims out of the 182 in the Gujarat Assembly, and Congress gave only six. Only three Muslim candidates won the election,” Mr Owaisi said.
He said, “this is also an indication that neither the BJP nor the Congress is showing any interest to secure Muslim votes”. The deliberate marginalisation of Muslims not good for our polity and our democracy,” he said.
Taking on the Congress, Mr Owaisi said, “I want to ask the Congress, why they went to so many temples in Gujarat and why they didn’t visit a single mosque, madrasa or dargah.”
He asked out why if Muslim wore a topi (skull cap) and sported a beard, he is instantly labelled a jihadi. He said in the 2019 campaign, he would visit masjids and meet pujaris. “Let us see what you call it.”
