All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday criticised former President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Nagpur.
Mr. Owaisi was addressing a large gathering at the Mecca Masjid on Jumatul Vida, the last Friday of Ramzan.
The Hyderabad parliamentarian slammed the former President for his comments in the RSS visitor’s book in which he was stated to have described RSS founding sarsanghchalak K. B. Hegdewar as a ‘ watan-e-aziz ka ghaiyoor beta’ (great son of mother India).
“Hegdewar said that the RSS cadre should not fight the British,” Owaisi recalled.
Singularity of culture
The MIM president added that the founding sarsanghchalak believed in singularity of cultures and thought. He questioned whether various cultures in the country — that of the Dalits, Tamils, Kannadigas and Muslims — would come to an end. “Hindustan for Hindus is what he (Hegdewar) propounded,” Mr. Owaisi said.
Describing the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress as the equivalent of Gog and Magog of the Abrahamic faiths, Mr. Owaisi said that RSS’ second sarsanghchalak M. S. Golwalkar in his book Bunch of Thoughts described Christians and Muslims as ‘internal threats’ to the nation.
“Was not the RSS banned? Didn’t Golwalkar consider the three colours of the Indian flag as ashubh ?” he questioned and pointed out that the former President won twice from the Murshidabad parliamentary constituency which has a 70% Muslim population.
Congress stand
Criticising the Congress for its statement on Mr. Mukherjee’s speech, Mr. Owaisi said: “The Congress said that the former President’s speech was ‘sagacious’. We want to tell Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, RSS, Congress and India that when Mahatma Gandhi was killed by Nathuram Godse, Sardar Patel wrote that RSS people were distributing sweets.”
Mr. Owaisi criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and claimed that as many as 390 people died and over 9,000 were wounded in communal riots in the country in the last four years. “You tell me, what kind of governance is this,” he said.
Two Nation theory
He criticised those who have been claiming that Muslims are naamleva (followers) of Mohammed Ali Jinnah even after 70 years of Independence. “People have not even seen Jinnah. We have nothing to do with Jinnah and Savarkar. They are the same and were proponents of the Two Nation Theory. It was Savarkar first then Jinnah. We have told Jinnah to get out,” he said.
