All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday encouraged parents to empower their daughters with good education, even as he appeared to blow the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls bugle saying that soon the party would organise public meetings.
Mr. Owaisi was speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of the Najmunnisa Educational Campus of the party-backed Salar-e-Millat Educational Trust.
“I promise you in the next few days, the civic polls will be conducted. Our journey began with Bihar and will continue. There will be public meetings in Chandrayangutta,” he said.
“Those who were not seen during times of trouble will be seen during the elections. Let them come. The public will decide. In Bihar, they shouted a lot and alleged that we are B-Team (of the Bharatiya Janata Party), vote-splitters, God showed them the result,” he said.
Mr. Owaisi said that if ‘jihad has to be waged’, it should be to seek education. “Ensure that you educate your children, especially your daughters. You know well the bad state of society. The social evil of dowry is rampant due to which there are a lot of problems. I will say that more than sons, educate your daughters, empower her with education. When this happens, her future will be bright,” he said, and encouraged Muslims to make use of 4% reservations for BC-E Muslims.
The Hyderabad parliamentarian rued the state of education among the Muslim community and said that low literacy rate, especially among women, is a key factor for the community’s backwardness, which in turn leads to injustices being meted on it, and a lesser access to rights.
“The Government of India-released Census data shows that illiteracy is seen the most in Muslims. This is around 42.87% in our beloved country. If you see the trend in women, among our Hindu, Jain, Christian, Sikh brethren, the lowest literacy levels are seen among women of our community. This is why it is important to establish and run such educational institutions,” Mr Owaisi said.
Mr Owaisi launched a salvo against his opponents and said that it is surprising to see that they spend a lot of money during elections, and wondered where they source these funds from. “If they use the same money on regular days to establish and run educational institutions, then it is understandable that they’ve done some developmental work - and then seeking votes is to some extent understandable,” he said.
