Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday warned the Centre against taking the country back to the 1990s, a decade which saw significant communal conflagration and demanded that they state clearly in the Supreme Court their commitment to uphold the Places of Worship Act (Special Provisions Act), 1991.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president listed in the Parliament 11 reasons for supporting the no-confidence motion.
“The 1991 Places of Worship Act was passed in this House so that the scabs of history would not be picked on. But you are picking on them. I am warning you. Do not take the country back to the 90s. Say in the Supreme Court that your government stands by the Act,” he demanded.
Describing Chetan Singh, the Railway Police Force constable who shot and killed his senior, Assistant Sub-Inspector Tika Ram Meena, and three Muslim passengers, including Syed Saifuddin, a resident of Hyderabad, as a uniformed terrorist, Mr Owaisi said that this was a prime example of the hatred against Muslims.
“A uniformed terrorist killed his senior, Mr Meena, walked into train coaches, asked people their names, saw their beards and then murdered them. He then said, “if you have to stay in this country, you will have to vote for Modi”. I want to know from the Government, is this not a prime example of majoritarian extremism, and radicalisation? If this is the case, then what will the government do about it?” he said, adding that in the last nine years, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre had stoked the flames of hatred against Muslims into an inferno.
Mr Owaisi questioned the government about the situation in Manipur and sought to know where the Centre’s conscience was. Questioning the continuance of N Biren Singh as Chief Minister, he said, “What happened to your conscience when women were raped in Manipur? Where is your conscience. You do not want to remove the CM because he is cooperating,” Mr Owaisi said.
