Owaisi seeks law against lynching

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has said the Centre should come out with a law against lynching and wondered why such legislation was not brought out despite a Supreme Court suggestion to frame one.

Addressing a meeting here on Friday against lynching, Owaisi accused the Sangh Parivar of spreading hatred and false propaganda against the Muslims, adding that it had resulted in such incidents.

"You read their literature... What has Deendayal Upadhyaya (RSS ideologue) written in the theory of integral humanism? What has he written about Muslims? You read it," he said.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader, who spoke at length about the lynching of Tabrez Ansari, alleged that the perpetrators of the incident were terrorists.

Ansari, 24, died after he was allegedly tied to a pole and thrashed with sticks by a mob in Jharkhand's Seraikela Kharsawan district last month on the suspicion of theft. The newly-married youth was purportedly seen in a video being forced to chant "Jai Shri Ram" and "Jai Hanuman."

Owaisi asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would call those who killed Ansari terrorists. "Why don't you frame a law, Mr Modi? Why cannot such a law be brought out when the Supreme Court had told you to do so?" he asked.

In July last year, the Supreme Court had asked the Parliament to consider enacting a new law to effectively deal with incidents of mob lynching, saying "horrendous acts of mobocracy" cannot be allowed to become a new norm.

Referring to the budget, Owaisi said he also wanted to see India become a superpower and a USD 5-trillion economy, but wondered whether it could be achieved if hatred was spread against the Muslims.

The Hyderabad MP said the Muslims should not get disappointed or live in fear. He asserted that the people of the community would not raise the slogans even if they were forced by the mobs.

The AIMIM chief said he was against anyone taking law into their own hands, but underlined the need to continue to the fight according to the law. Owaisi underlined that his party was not against the Hindus, but against Hindutva.

"Hindu nationalism is different and Indian nationalism is different. Indian nationalism includes all religions. Hindu brethren in the country are secular and will remain so," he said.

Referring to BJP president Amit Shah's comments last year that the AIMIM was a "Razakar's party," Owaisi said he had nothing to do with the militia of the erstwhile Nizams.

"Those who are Razakars had gone to Pakistan. Those who are dutiful, that is the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslim," he said.