All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi reached Jahangirpuri , where the North Delhi Municipal Corporation embarked on an anti-encroachment demolition drive days after the neighbourhood witnessed communal clashes on Hanuman Jayanthi .
Mr Owaisi reached Jahangirpuri later in the evening on Wednesday and made his way into the neighbourhood. It is here that the family of Md Ansar , an accused in the riots case, and others met him. He implied that the accused were being dealt with on account of their identity.
“Whether Ansar works for the BJP or AAP does not matter. He remains Ansar . That is why he has been arrested. Secondly, why this is happening in a more aggressive way is because the so-called secular parties, the Congress, AAP (Aam Aadmi Party), TMC and NCP are indulging in competitive Hindutva ,” Mr Owaisi said, even as said that the AAP , which runs the PWD , should have refused to comply.
Mr Owaisi claimed that while portions of the Jama Masjid were demolished and a grave was razed, the people at a temple were told to remove the encroachment themselves. “This is a classic case of law being destroyed. Article 21 is being demolished,” the Hyderabad Parliamentarian said.
On social media, Mr Owaisi called the anti-demolition drive the Turkman Gate of 2020, a reference to the demolition incident in 1976, even as he criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party.
“Turkman Gate 2022 ,history tells you those in power in 1976 are a spent force in present times, this BJP & AAP should remember. Power is not eternal,” Mr Owaisi tweeted.
Describing the demolition drive as vigilante justice which would undermine the rule of law, the Hyderabad parliamentarian accused the BJP and AAP of collusion and questioned what they were doing for seven years. He questioned where the AAP MLAs were when the drive was in progress.
Mr Owaisi also said that the organisers of the Hanuman Jayanthi procession did not have permission and that the police should have acted faster, and seized weapons which members of this procession were carrying.
