Owaisi uses ‘intolerance’ and Dadri to woo Muslims in Bihar

KISHANGANJ/ARARIA: A sudden belief has dawned on Muhammad Usman, a 50-year-old shop owner at Neem Chand Road in Kishanganj that the level of tolerance has come down drastically in the country. Usman has never heard names of any of the twelve filmmakers, including Dibakar Banerjee and Anand Patwardhan, who recently returned their national awards to protest “growing intolerance in the country”.Usman heard Owaisi talking about growing intolerance in the country during an election rally he addressed in Kishanganj which forced him to ponder over the state of Muslims in the country.
Usman is a bit surprised and in disbelief because Muslims, he said, have not faced any attack on freedom in Kishanganj, a Muslim dominated district considered a cradle of Hindu-Muslim peaceful co-existence. “The dead body of a Muslim woman was exhumed and it was desecrated in Meerut. Who will raise a voice against it? You need to be united. When you are united no one will dare do this. It is our country,” Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) said at an election recent rally in Kishanganj. His speech moved many Muslims, some even turned emotional.
The emotional issues crowd Owaisi's speech during rallies. The AIMIM strategists think that raking up issues like intolerance, Dadri, Meerut along with marketing the terrible condition of Muslims in Seemanchal will help the party win all six seats. AIMIM is contesting from Kishanganj, Kochadhaman (Kishanganj district), Baisi and Amour (Purnia), Balrampur (Katihar) and Raniganj (Araria). Owaisi also uses the backwardness of Seemanchal, goes prepared to address rallies with selective facts and figures to substantiate his claims that Muslims in Seemanchal live in terrible conditions. He claims that the population of Muslims in Bihar is 17% while 18% of all behind bars in Bihar are Muslims and blames CM Nitish Kumar for it. But ‘intolerance’, Dadri, Meerut occupies a large part of his speeches.
At another rally in Kishanganj, Owaisi said: “Do you know what happened in Dadri? A man named Akhlaq was killed because it was suspected that he kept beef in his house. He was sleeping when a mob barged into his house and lynched him. The son of Akhlaq is in Indian Air Force. He is protecting the country.” In different rallies Owaisi has been attacking BJP on these issues.
His younger brother and controversial leader Akbaruddin Owaisi spoke on the issue of 2002 Gujarat riots and 2013 Muzaffarnagar in an attempt to incite the voters to vote for AIMIM. He was booked for his controversial speech and is evading arrest after the local police issued an arrest warrant against him.
The senior Owaisi is too tactful. “The media persons are sitting here. I do not know what will become controversial. I will speak everything, but you will not be able to catch me,” he jokingly said at an election rally in Kishanganj recently where several policemen were also present.
AIMIM's Amour candidate Nawazis Alam said Owaisi brothers speak the truth. “The Muslim youth cannot tolerate suppression anymore. The huge crowds at Owaisi rallies indicate that the Muslim voters have lapped them up,” Alam told TOI over phone.
Several voters in Kishanganj and Kochadhaman assembly segments said they will vote for leaders who can improve their living standards. “The roads, hospitals, schools of Kishanganj lie in shambles. They should talk about it rather than using us once again,” said Shakil Akhtar a government teacher in Kochadhaman.