Hitting out at Mamata Banerjee for her comment, AIMIM leader Zameerul Hasan told India Today that she had no problem with Asaduddin Owaisi earlier but is now branding him a Muslim extremist.
Hitting out at Mamata Banerjee for her comment, AIMIM leader Zameerul Hasan told India Today that she had no problem with Asaduddin Owaisi earlier but is now branding him a Muslim extremist.
The AIMIM Bengal-in-charge was referring to an old photograph where Mamata Banerjee was allegedly seen with Asaduddin Owaisi during the Nandigram movement.
Marking a shift in her rhetoric on religious extremism, Mamata Banerjee had, at an event in Cooch Behar on Monday, asked people to refrain from listening to “minority extremists” who have their base in Hyderabad, apparently targeting Owaisi, a Lok Sabha MP from that city.
Without naming Asaduddin Owaisi, Mamata Banerjee said, “There are some extremists among the minorities. They have their base in Hyderabad. Don’t listen to them. Don’t trust these forces”.
“First, I condemn the CM’s statement assigning our party as a terrorist or something of that sort. Even during the Nandigram issue, Mamata Banerjee called up Asaduddin Owaisi for help. We even have the picture of the event as a proof,” Zameerul Hasan said.
“Our party wholeheartedly supported the TMC’s cause. In fact, I was also initially a member of the TMC party. But in the first parliamentary election after the TMC was formed, Banerjee joined the NDA. Most of her ministers have joined the BJP now. And I feel she trains the people and supplies them to the BJP,” he said.
He added, “She only wants votes. Once a year, she gives a good Iftar party and expects that Muslims will be happy. All parties make promises to Muslims before elections but do not deliver them. We as a political party think that even we have the right to participate in the elections. Mamata Banerjee has not questioned any other political party for being here in Bengal. Then why question AIMIM?”
“We were ready for the last parliamentary elections but when we consulted our president Asaduddin Owaisi saab, he asked us not to disturb Mamata Banerjee because if we got even 20,000 votes she will lose the elections. But how long do we wait? The Mamata government is not doing anything good for the Muslims. Some people do get benefits but that doesn’t count because the majority is does not. We are here to fight on our own, for our own rights and to form the government here,” Zameerul Hasan stated.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief’s comments did not go down well with Asaduddin Owaisi, who is seeking to expand his party’s realm of influence beyond Hyderabad to other states. Earlier on Tuesday, Asaduddin Owasi hit back at TMC the chief saying Muslims in her state are ranked “worst” on development indicators.
“When arrogance gets to your head you make nonsensical, baseless statements. She is making these statements because she is frustrated…because she is losing ground…and she has demeaned all the Muslims who have voted for her,” Asaduddin Owaisi said in New Delhi.
He said neither he went to West Bengal to campaign during the Lok Sabha polls and nor his party fielded a candidate.
“It’s not religious extremism to say that Bengal’s Muslims have one of the worst human development indicators of any minority,” he earlier wrote on Twitter.
When asked by a news channel whether he hoped to extend the AIMIM’s influence in West Bengal, the Hyderabad MP said his party has already been working in the state for a year-and-half.
“I have to contest election if I believe in democracy. I have to contest election if I have to realise my constitutional rights….to stop these opportunistic parties who have used Muslims to be in power,” he asserted.
He said Mamata Banerjee’s statement only reinforced the fact that AIMIM has become a “formidable force” in the state.
Bengal has a sizeable Muslim electorate and the BJP, which has emerged as the main challenger to the TMC after the Lok Sabha polls, has often alleged that Mamata Banerjee and her party’s “appeasement policy” had led to the “rise of minority extremism” in the state.
For years, the AIMIM’s influence was limited to the old Hyderabad city before it forayed into Maharashtra and two of its candidates won the assembly elections from there in 2014.
The party now has a Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra and it recently pocketed the Muslim dominated Kishanganj seat in Bihar in a bypoll to make its maiden entry into the state assembly.
Prasanta Patnaik