All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said his party did not receive a single electoral bond, and described those that did receive them as having sold themselves to buyers, and indicated that there exists a quid pro quo.
Mr. Owaisi, who represents Hyderabad in the Lok Sabha, was speaking at the Jalsa Youmul Quran, an annual public meeting held in Ramzan in the courtyard of Mecca Masjid, where he also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for bringing in the rules of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which, he said, is rooted in religion.
“Whoever is giving the bond will be known as the buyer. They are selling themselves, and they are buying. But who is the B-Team in India? Asaduddin Owaisi? Modi has taken ₹6,000 crore. Now after taking ₹6,000 crore, you’ve encashed it, and put it in the bank. Now tell me, who is siphoning money? What did Narendra Modi say? “Na khaaonga, na khaane doonga”, I’ve amended it slightly: na khaaunga na khaane doonga, jab tak tum bond nahi diye mereku,” Mr. Owaisi said.
He claimed that if a company purchases an electoral bond for any party, it does not do so for nothing. “When they [EB donors] are giving, then Modi is giving something to them [in return]. All parties are saying: you give me, I will give you everything. You give me a bond, take in return whatever you like (sic),” he said.
The AIMIM president clarified that he was never against Indian citizenship being accorded to persecuted communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The Muslims, who rejected the Two-Nation Theory, would not reject such a move. However, he pointed out that “when citizenship is being accorded on the basis of religion, then it can also be taken away on the basis of religion”, even as he reiterated that the CAA must be looked at in conjunction with the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). “It is their conspiracy to harass us in our own country,” he said.
Reacting to the assurances of BJP members that no Muslim would lose citizenship due to CAA, Mr. Owaisi challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to announce that they would not implement NPR and NRC.
“Modi and Amit Shah should stand up and say that NPR and NRC will never happen in the country. But they will not. Why? It is because it is their plan. They want to implement NPR and NRC. They want to harass,” he said.
Mr. Owaisi said that the people of Hyderabad in Telangana, and Kishanganj in Bihar would vote against CAA and deliver a blow to the BJP.
“We hope that the new Chief Minster of Telangana is against CAA,” he said, adding that if NPR and NRC is implemented, everyone stands the risk of being declared a doubtful citizen.
