Asaduddin Owaisi calls on Muslims to choose their own leaders over Nehru-Gandhi, Yadav

Angry at other political parties' refusal to tie up with him, Asaduddin Owaisi has urged Muslims to find their own leaders instead of depending on a Nehru-Gandhi or a Yadav to lead them.

"Muslims should find a leader from within themselves," the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and Hyderabad MP told a rally in the Tanda area of Rampur district on Monday. "The atrocities against Muslims will never stop if the community doesn't have its own voice."

He asserted: "Abdul lays a carpet and those doing politics in the name of Nehru-Gandhi or Yadav come and sit there. This system should end now."

"Abdul" is a general reference to a Muslim, used by many politicians these days.

Owaisi has in the last two months sent feelers to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party to include him in the INDIA bloc for next year’s Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. While Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav has replied that there is no room left for any other party in the anti-BJP alliance, Congress leaders have simply ignored Owaisi.

"The time is ripe for Muslims to have someone from their own community (as their leader). There is no dearth of talent among Muslim youths but they are made to work for other politicians," Owaisi said, speaking in Hindi.

"Politicians from other communities try to keep them busy with other work. This is why they must understand the conspiracy against them and rise to lead (their own community). Let the community come out of the shadow of Nehru-Gandhi and Yadav leaders. Abdul does not need to spread the carpet for them."

Owaisi said successive governments in the state had neglected Rampur, a district with a substantial Muslim population. The literacy rate is 53 per cent in Rampur compared with 67 per cent across Uttar Pradesh.

"Over 70 per cent of the children (in the district) suffer from anaemia," he said, stressing that he was quoting government data.

His comments echoed what O.P. Rajbhar, leader of BJP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, had said a fortnight ago. "The Samajwadi Party uses Abdul solely to lay the carpet for its leaders. Can the Samajwadi Party announce a Muslim as the chief ministerial candidate?" Rajbhar had asked.

The upcoming Assembly polls are expected to be different from past Uttar Pradesh elections, with several Muslim clerics appealing to community members to stop supporting parties that win with their votes but deny them leadership opportunities.

"The Congress's was the last governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh (the N.D. Tiwari government till 1989) that arguably treated the Muslims well. Muslims are disillusioned now and looking for an option beyond the Samajwadi Party," said Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi, a Sunni cleric.