By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : Asaduddin Owais, the member of Lok Sabha from Hyderabad and a senior leader of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen was among the Muslim members of Parliament who not only voted in support of the Manmohan Singh led UPA government but also put up a fierce defense of the government in his brief speech in the House. He said the unholy nexus of the right and the left (BJP and the communist parties) was not the Indo US Nuclear deal but the secular government at the center to pave the way for the BJP leader L K Advani to become the Prime Minister. “We want to stop this at any cost”, he said.
Excerpts from an interview with Asauddin Owaisi:
Q: Why the MIM chose to support the UPA on Indo US nuclear deal?
Asad : The vote of confidence was not on the deal alone. The bigger question before us whether to allow the UPA government to fall and open the doors for the BJP to return to power. After the bitter experience the Muslim minority of India had during the NDA rule – be it Gujrat pogrom or the misuse of POTA to brand all Muslims terrorists, we do not want to see BJP coming to power again or L K Advani becoming the Prime Minister. It was to stop them that we supported the UPA government. We can not forget that Advani is an accused in Babri Masjid demolition case.
Q: But you also had a lot of praise for the Manmohan Singh government?
Asad : Yes. The MIM has taken note of several measures this central government has taken to help the Muslim community. Compare the record of Manmohan Singh government with that of the NDA. NDA had spent only Rs 200 crore during the ten five year plan and in five year it spent Rs 20 crore on two schemes for Muslims. The UPA on the other hand has increased the minority welfare budget from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1000 crore in last one year, increased the Maulana Azad Educational Fund corpus from 100 crore to 250 crore in two years. In 11th plan the corpus is going to be increased to Rs 750 crore. UPA created national commission for minority education. For the minority welfare the NDA government had only given Rs 200 crores in the entire 10th five year plan whereas UPA gave only in 2008-09 Rs 1000 crore. They repealed the draconian Pota act under which hundreds of people were booked and many of them are still languishing in jails. The UPA government has given exgratia to the victims of pogrom in Gujrat and Bhagalpur riots. Don’t you think we should appreciate it and back the UPA.
The Prime Minister has promised much more. He gave a categorical assurance to me that the Fatimi sub committee on Sachar committee recommendations will be implemented and an amount of more than 5000 crore will be spent on that.
Q: But there are allegations that MPs were paid huge bribes to support the UPA.
Asad : CPI leader Bardhan had said that each MP was paid Rs 25 crore. I am not so cheap to be purchased in a few crores. My Party has got Rs 5000 crore for the welfare of Muslim community.
Q: But what about the nuclear deal itself. It is being said that Indian Muslims are against it.
Asad : The deal is not between communities or religions. It is between two countries. We believe that India is an energy deficient country and need more power to meet the future requirements. Having said that we also stress that we have strong reservations about this deal. We feel that there would be impact on India’s foreign policy. We have warned the Prime Minister that we will not tolerate any tilt towards the United States.
A canard is being spread against the Muslims that they are against it. These parties are linking Muslims to this deal to increase hatred against Muslims among other communities and project them as a block in the way of the deal. Why don’t they say whether Hindus are in favour of deal or Dalits are against it. Why make the stand of Muslims an issue and put the community in the dock.
Q: It is also being said that after this deal India will become more pro US and support US action against Iran?
Asad : I raised this point with the Prime Minister. He told me categorically that India has made it clearly to the US that military action against Iran was no solution to the problem. The Prime Minister said he also told the US that any war in the region will create serious problems for India because there are five millions Indians who work in the Gulf region and it will have a huge impact on India. He also made it clear and wanted me to convey it to the people that he will never compromise on India’s foreign policy.
Q: How do you look at the left and the BJP sailing in one boat?
Asad : They are the two sides of the same coin. BJP is an open adversary of Muslims and the CPIM’s hatred towards Muslims is shrouded in its ideology. If the left was really secular and sympathetic towards Msulims, the condition of the community would not have been so pathetic in West Bengal. Muslims are 28% of West Bengal population. After 33 year of left rule they have got only 2.8% share in the government jobs. This is their secularism. For us Advani is the number one enemy, Prakash Karat second and then Bush. BJP is the immediate problem for us and not America.