Nobody wants Muslims to have agency: Asaduddin Owaisi hits out at BJP, Congress

Asaduddin Owaisi said at the India Today Conclave South that the BJP and the Congress have failed to give Muslims meaningful political representation.Asaduddin Owaisi at the India Today Conclave South.Both the BJP and the Congress have failed to ensure meaningful political representation for Muslims, and successive governments have reduced the community to a vote bank rather than treating it as an equal political stakeholder, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said at the India Today Conclave South on Tuesday.The Hyderabad MP said no political party in India wants Muslims to have an independent political agency and alleged that even parties that project themselves as secular lack the intellectual honesty to stand up for minorities and empower them politically.Owaisi was responding to a question on whether India was doing enough to safeguard the interests of minorities. He said the country's founding fathers had envisaged a constitutional order in which the state would not have a religion and all citizens would enjoy equal rights."The founding fathers gave us the Constitution. This country will not have religion. Fundamental rights were given, equality was given. But the parties which have governed India completely marginalised us politically, disempowered us, did not allow us to grow and denied us political justice," he alleged. Owaisi said the political marginalisation of Muslims was not limited to any one government or political party, arguing that successive governments had failed to ensure substantive political representation for the community."From Nehru to Modi, Muslims have been made mere voters, not equal stakeholders," he pointed out. He questioned the community's limited representation in Parliament and said the issue went beyond the number of Muslim MPs, arguing that Muslims had been denied the opportunity to develop an independent political voice."Muslim representation in Lok Sabha is just 4 percent," Owaisi said. "The BJP does not give seats to Muslims. There are other political parties which claim to be secular, do not show their intellectual honesty. What is the choice left for Muslims now? It is a very big question."Owaisi said political representation was closely linked to broader questions of social and economic empowerment."Without political justice, there is no economic and social justice," he said.Asked whether Muslims had traditionally voted for the Congress, Owaisi rejected the suggestion that such voting patterns represented an unconditional political preference."Muslims voted for the lesser of two evils. There was no alternative viable choice," he said.He argued that the lack of political alternatives had forced Muslims to choose between established parties rather than being able to build and support independent political platforms.- Ends