The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said Chhatrapati Shivaji was not against Islam.
Congratulating Marathi people on the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the AIMIM chief also said that he was a great king of the poor and the oppressed.
“I congratulate our Maratha brothers on the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Chhatrapati Shivaji was not against Islam. He was a great king of the poor and the oppressed,” said Asaduddin Owaisi in Hindi.
Targeting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hyderabad MP said that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was not “anti-Muslim” but the Sangh tries to portray him as “anti-Islam”.
While addressing a public meeting in Akola city of Maharashtra on Sunday, he said that Muslims in India are duty-bound to protect mosques and they should think that the Babri masjid “still exists”.
“Muslims should never forget December 6, 1992. They should keep in mind that Babri Masjid still exists and will remain so, otherwise another Babri (incident) will happen. Muslims should remember Babri like Jews remember the Holocaust,” he added.
Owaisi claimed that the representation of Muslim members in the Lok Sabha should go up in the 2024 elections and set AIMIM a target of winning 4 seats from Maharashtra, which has 48 Lok Sabha seats.
In the 2019 general elections, AIMIM won the Aurangabad (later renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) Lok Sabha constituency from Maharashtra.
We should recognise the snakes in our society who are threatening us in the name of secularism, Owaisi also said at the public meeting.
On February 16, Owaisi had hailed the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the electoral bonds scheme, terming it “unconstitutional”, saying that the verdict by the apex court reveals “what is wrong” with the ruling government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“I welcome the SC judgement. The SC has not only held the bonds to be unconstitutional but also the amendment that permitted unlimited corporate funding. If these are unconstitutional and if they violate Article 19(1)(a), then what should we say about the legitimacy of elections since 2017? Are they not a big question mark on the legitimacy and transparency of elections since 2017? According to the election watchdog’s report, the total donations declared by the national parties for 2022-23 was ₹850.438 crore of which ₹719.858 crore went to the BJP alone,” he had said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Published: 19 Feb 2024, 10:35 PM IST