Asaduddin Owaisi to BJP, Congress: What message are you sending to Muslims?
Owaisi
He further asked how many recruitments from the minority communities took place in the last four years.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday asked the BJP and the Congress the message it was sending out to the Muslims in the country.
Owaisi asked if the usage of "Muslim word will lead to polarisation"?
"The most unfortunate thing that has come out of recent controversy of Muslims not being part of this party or that party, statements of Cong president and PM Modi. What is the message you're sending to Muslims, that the usage of the Muslim word will lead to polarisation, it's a dirty word?" Owaisi stated.
He further asked how many recruitments from the minority communities took place in the last four years.
"In the last four years, whether Railways, Paramilitary Forces, how many recruitments of minorities took place? In PM's 15 point programme, it's said in point 10 that recruitment to state and central services or police, the government will be advised to give special consideration to minorities," Owaisi added.
A group of Muslim intellectuals had recently met with Gandhi, after which an Urdu newspaper — Inquilaab — quoted Gandhi as having told them the "Congress is a Muslim party".
The BJP was quick to pick on the report with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launching attacks on Gandhi. "I read in the newspapers that naamdaar (entitled) said the Congress is a party of the Muslims. I am not surprised... When the previous prime minister was in charge, he said openly that the first use of natural resources should be with Muslims," Modi said in UP's Azamgarh.
"You can't be janeu-dhari (Hindu who wears the sacred thread) at one point... Muslim-dhari at another... This is playing with the people's trust," Sitharaman said at a press conference in Delhi.
In his reaction to the row, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday tweeted out saying, "I stand with the last person in the line. The exploited, marginalised and the persecuted. Their religion, caste or beliefs matter little to me."
He added, "I seek out those in pain and embrace them. I erase hatred and fear. I love all living beings. I am the Congress."
The comments are being seen as a riposted to the "Congress is a Muslim party" allegation against Gandhi.