Hyderabad: “My belief is that somebody would shoot me one day. The followers of Godse can do so with me…If Mahatma Gandhi was shot, who is Owaisi. As long as I am alive, allegations would continue to be made,” said AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi yesterday.
Speaking to reporters, the Hyderabad MP alleged that the ruling BJP government wanted to change Kashmir’s demography through delimitation of Assembly constituencies to have its own chief minister. The Modi government loved Kashmir but not Kashmiri’s, he said.
Owaisi further claimed that charges against him claiming that his comments helped Pakistan’s propaganda were not new, but asserted that he had nothing to do with Pakistan and hat Kashmir was an integral part of India.
Speaking about Kashmir’s delimitation, he said, “They want to do it. That is what the Election Commission said. The whole idea is to change the demography of Kashmir. The whole idea is to have a non-Muslim chief minister from the BJP only… That is why, this is a step in changing the demography of that state and that is why it has been bifurcated.”
He further noted that the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 19 and other articles of the Constitution could not be taken away and accused the Centre of forgetting constitutionalism.
He also went on to claim that the government would remove certain special provisions in Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam and Himachal Pradesh.
On the BJP raising the issue of the day of merger of the erstwhile Hyderabad state of the Nizam with the Indian Union (17 September 1948) not being celebrated officially, Owaisi said he felt proud that Hyderabad became part of the Indian Union.
“About 10 lakh jobs would be lost in the automobile industry, but the ‘liberation day’ is being talked about,” he said.
Speaking about actor Rajinikanth’s comments lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as Lord Krishna and Arjuna, he said, “Who are the Pandavas in this? Who are the Kauravas? So you would like to make Kashmir the Mahabharat? One actor has said, the other actors are happy. Feel happy.” The Congress in Tamilnadu had also ridiculed Rajinikanth for his comments, asking him to “read the Mahabharat properly.