India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said that a clipped video of his speech against alleged provocative and communal statements made against minority communities during a three-day “Dharma Sansad” or religious assembly held in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar is being widely circulated.“
A clipped 1-min video is being circulated from a 45 min speech I gave in Kanpur,” he said. He also shared the entire video of his speech on Twitter.
“The context to my speech is amply clear. I was talking about cops who torture 80-year old men. I was talking about cops who watch silently as mobs thrash a rickshaw driver in front of his daughter. Cops who rained lathi blows on a man as held his child in his arms,” Owaisi said.
“I said we’ll remember these police atrocities. Is this objectionable? Why is it offensive to remember how police have treated Muslims in UP? We cannot forget the oppression that was meted out to Anas, Suleiman, Asif, Faisal, Altaf, Akhlaq, Qasim, and hundreds of others,” he asked in a series of tweets.
“I did not incite violence or make threats. I talked about police atrocities,” he said.The event in Haridwar that Asaduddin Owaisi was referring to in his speech was attended by several Hindu religious leaders, who allegedly called upon the community to take up arms against Muslims as they gave a clarion call for a ‘Hindu nation’.
The three-day religious assembly was organised by Yati Narsinghanand, a controversial Hindutva figure known to make communal statements. Yati Narsinghanand reportedly said that “arming the Hindu brigade with bigger and better weapons” would be the “solution” against the “threat of Muslims.”Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale has filed a complaint against the provocative speeches while Congress leader Shama Mohamed slammed the organisers of the event.
