President of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said that the Pt. Sunderlal Committee Report, which recorded murder and excesses on Muslims during Operation Polo, is a fact that must be accepted.
Mr Owaisi was speaking at a public meeting to celebrate ‘National Integration’, which followed a massive Tiranga rally in which patriotic slogans were raised and the tricolour displayed.
“This is a part of history that cannot be denied,” he said and later quoted a passage from the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru in which he commented on the subject. “The Razakars committed atrocities on Hindus and the Hindus committed atrocities on Muslims,” Mr Owaisi said and added that then Prime Minister Nehru had commissioned the Pt Sunderlal Committee, which recorded up to 40,000 deaths of Muslims at the time of Operation Polo.
A boy holding the national flag participates in the Tiranga Rally. | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
He said that scabs of old wounds must not be picked, but efforts should be made to heal.
Mr Owaisi said Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam, was poorly advised and made blunders. The Nizam, he opined, should have accepted the agreement, put forth by the Government of India, which could have avoided Operation Polo.
Despite his weaknesses, the Nizam, Mr Owaisi said, gave massive cash grants to many temples and roped in Italian experts to conserve Ajanta and Ellora caves. Grants were given to the Benaras Hindu University as well as the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune for translating the Mahabharata.
AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi participating in the Tiranga Rally on Friday. | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
Mincing no words, Mr Owaisi said Razakar leader Qasim Razvi was possessed by madness, despite stalwarts of the Muslim community advising him to enter into an agreement with the Government of India. The Hyderabad parliamentarian reiterated that the AIMIM was not the Majlis of Razvi, but that of Abdul Wahed Owaisi. “Those who were Razakars fled to Pakistan. Those who were wafadaar (patriots) remained here and are looking in the eyes of Modi,” he said. The AIMIM has full faith in the Constitution of India, he added.
Touching upon the political discourse in Hyderabad, Mr Owaisi said, “People then used to say that Hyderabad is a stomach ulcer. BJP says that Hyderabad is an ulcer. Remember, Hyderabad is no ulcer; it is jadi booti, a cure of all ailments. They said they would do a surgical strike here but could not do anything,” he said.
Mr Owaisi lauded the youth for their unity and peaceful protests after BJP legislator T. Raja Singh made objectionable comments against Prophet Muhammed. “He is now jail ka raja,” he said.
