AIMIM’s Owaisi targets secular parties for using Muslim community for votes

Mumbai, Dec 11: All India Majlis-e-Itthadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday accused the secular parties of using the Muslim community for vote bank politics and appealed the members of the community to not follow ‘political secularism’, as they won’ get anything from it.
Addressing a public rally in suburban Chandiwali, he said, “Do not talk about political secularism, talk about education and justice for the community’s development. You have voted for secular parties like Congress and NCP but what you got from it.”
He claimed that secular parties always treated the Muslims as the vote bank and never talked about education or justice for the community.
While appealing the Muslim community to work together for the development of the community, he said, “If we do the team work, definitely we will win. We have to talk about education for our children, justice for our community. For the sake of votes, they talk about secularism and thereafter they forget you.”
While pressing for the party’s demand of reservation for the Muslims, Owaisi gave a comparison between the Maratha community and the Muslim community in regards to government job, education, sources of income and standard of living in the country.
He said, “A majority of Muslims live in slums. They do not have farm lands in the country. So, be united And fight for justice.”
The AIMIM president accused the Maharashtra government, headed by Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, of allegedly forgetting the nationalism, saying an officer asked the party’s leader Imtiaz Jaleel to remove the ‘tiranga’ (tricolour) from the vehicle while on the way to Mumbai from Aurangabad.
Continuing his attack on the MVA government, Owaisi said to prohibit the entry of MIM activists into Mumbai, the city police had imposed section 144 of Indian Penal Code and wondered whether the same treatment would be given to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his scheduled visit to Mumbai later this month or lay down the red carpet to welcome him.