SP betrayed Muslims, dalits, says Asaduddin Owaisi

The All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has accused the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh of betraying Muslims and dalits and failing to fulfil the promises made to them.

He also said that the Prime Minister should not send forces to fight the ISIS because it was not India’s war. “Indian Muslims have nothing to do with ISIS and the latter knows this too well,” he added.

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, while addressing an election rally in Faizabad on Thursday, said that Muslims had been promised reservation by the Samajwadi Party but no action was taken after the formation of its government.

“The Samajwadi Party makes promises at the time of election and then conveniently forgets about it,” he said.

He lashed out at the SP and said that Muslims had suffered the most in the riots that have taken place in the Samajwadi regime and now the party was silent on the suicide of Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad.

“Rohith was driven to suicide because he was a dalit and Mohammed Ikhlaq was lynched in Dadri because he was a Muslim,” he said.

He said that Muslims and dalits had been at the receiving end in the Samajwadi regime.

Interestingly, AIMIM has fielded a dalit, Pradip Kori, from Bikapur in Faizabad to test the “dalit-Muslim” combination for the elections.

The Bikapur seat fell vacant following the death of SP MLA Mitrasen Yadav and polling is scheduled to be held here on February 13.

The AIMIM leader said that both, Muslims and dalits have been deprived of their rights and Dr Ambedkar, when he contested elections, enjoyed the full support of Muslims.

Mr Owaisi also alleged that the politics in the country was being controlled by rich people. “If you elect a poor person, a dalit, the world will respect you,” he stated.

Mr Owaisi also criticised the BJP and said that it claimed to be a champion of dalits only because it organises programmes and praises Dr Ambedkar.

He criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meeting his counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore and said, “Poor farmers are dying but neither the BJP nor the SP is concerned about them. The manner in which the Prime Minister met Nawaz Sharief, it seemed that long lost brothers were meeting again. Hundreds of our soldiers have been killed in ceasefire violations along the border but the centre has not taken any action. Where is the promised retaliation ”