New Delhi: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Congress, BJP and AAP over the Ram Mandir issue, accusing them of betraying the Muslim community and appeasing the Hindu majority. Talking to reporters in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi, Owaisi said that Muslims had been offering prayers in the Babri Masjid for 500 years, until it was ‘very systematically’ occupied by Hindu activists in 1949, when the Congress leader Govind Ballabh Pant was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and K.K. Nair was the district collector of Ayodhya.
He alleged that the Congress government did not remove the idols that were surreptitiously placed inside the mosque, and instead locked the mosque and allowed the Hindu activists to worship there. He also claimed that the Ram Mandir movement was a creation of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, which was formed in 1964, and that Mahatma Gandhi had never spoken about building a temple at the disputed site.
#WATCH | Kalaburagi, Karnataka: On the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi says, “Muslims offered namaz in Babri Masjid for 500 years. When Congress’ GB Pant was the CM of Uttar Pradesh, idols were placed inside the masjid… Nair was the collector of Ayodhya… pic.twitter.com/4sJ8mn25KD
— ANI (@ANI) January 20, 2024
Owaisi said that the Babri Masjid was systematically taken away from the Muslims, culminating in its demolition in 1992 by a Hindu mob, despite the assurances given by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar to the Supreme Court. He said that the 2019 verdict of the apex court, which paved the way for the construction of the Ram Mandir, was based on the evidence of faith of the Hindu side, while ignoring the legal title of the Muslim side.
He also criticised the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is part of the INDIA alliance, for announcing that his government would organise Sunderkand Paath and Hanuman Chalisa recitation every Tuesday in government schools. He said that this was a sign of the AAP’s ideological bankruptcy and its attempt to woo the Hindu voters.
Owaisi said that none of the so-called secular parties had the courage to speak up for the rights of the Muslims, and that they were all busy targeting the votes of the majority community. He urged the Muslims to vote for the AIMIM, which he said was the only party that could protect their interests and dignity.