By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mumbai: Grabbing an opportunity to reach out to the expatriates from the community, All India Majlis-e-Itehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and MP Asaduddin Owaisi has urged them to fight for equal rights and political empowerment in India.
Owaisi was in Riyadh for an event organized by Bazm-e-Ittehad at The Ritz Carlton when he addressed the gathering and described the expatriate community as the brand ambassadors of the growing Indo-Saudi ties.
MIM President and MP Asaduddin Owaisi with his uncle Ahmeduddin Owaisi (second from right) in Riyadh- Courtesy Ummid.
He called upon them to continue their good work to bolster bilateral relations and thanked the Saudi authorities for their humanitarian support.
Explaining the secularism situation prevailing in the country, Owaisi asked: “Why should Muslims alone carry the burden of secularism on their shoulders in India? Why is it that members of the majority community have decided to refuse to take upon themselves the cause of protecting secularism and strengthening communal harmony?”
Countering the new Indian government in its approach towards minorities, he said, “With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coming to power, we see rapid spread of communalism all over the country.”
“The so-called secular parties never tried to protect secularism by providing equal justice to the minority community and have just treated them as a vote bank,” he added.
He also took on Sharad Pawar for his accusations against MIM and said,“Out of a total of six million Muslims, who cast their vote in the recent elections in Maharashtra, the AIMIM received only half-a-million votes. How can Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar blame us for having split the secular vote in favor of the BJP?”
Madinah-based Bazm-e-Ittehad president Ahmeduddin Owaisi was honored with the prestigious “Salar-e-Millat Award” for carrying forward the legacy of India’s dynamic Muslim leader, the late Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi. He was popularly known as Salar-e-Millat.
Ahmeduddin Owaisi is based in Saudi Arabia and is a brother of Asaduddin Owaisi’s father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi. After receiving the award Ahmeduddin Owaisi thanked the party’s supporters and loyalists in the Kingdom and abroad for standing firm behind the AIMIM leadership.
[With inputs from arabnews]