Owaisi blasts Narendra Modi over minority remarks, terms them BJP’s 'hypocrisy'

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on hit out at Narendra Modi for his remark that minorities were living in a fear and that his party MPs should work towards breaking the “deception”, terming it hypocrisy and contradiction the BJP had been practicing for the last five years.

“If Muslims seriously live in fear can the PM tell us, out of the 300 odd MPs, how many Muslim MPs he has in own party who got elected from Lok Sabha? This is the hypocrisy and contradiction which the PM and his party is practicing from last 5 years,” Ani news agency quoted Owaisi as saying.

Referring to the presence of Dadri lynching accused at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s election rally, the AIMIM chief asked Modi whether he will stop “gangs” killing Muslims in the name of cow vigilantism.

“If PM agrees minorities live in fear, he should know people who killed Akhlaq were sitting in front bench of electoral public meeting….. If PM feels Muslims live in fear, will he stop gangs, who in name of cow are killing, beating Muslims, taking our videos and demeaning us,” the Hyderabad parliamentarian exploded.

Addressing newly elected MPs of the BJP and NDA partners in Delhi on Saturday, the prime minister-elect had advised them to win over the trust of minorities and work without discrimination. In his 75-minute speech, Modi had said minorities were forced to live in an “imaginary fear” for years and that they now have the task to break this “deception”. 

During the five years of Narendra Modi government, incidents of lynching in the name of cow protection and attacks on Muslims increased many folds. In the most recent incident, three Muslims including a woman were reportedly thrashed and forced to chant “jai shree ram” in Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni for allegedly carrying beef in an auto.

The incident, that took place within 24 hours after the BJP’s landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections, was a brutal reminder of the terror of cow vigilantism. According to media reports, five men including chief of a fringe right-wing organisation were arrested following the incident.