All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the release, welcoming and garlanding of those who were convicted in the Bilkis Bano rape case and wondered whether the lack of protests over the issue is due to the fact that she belongs to the minority community.
Mr Owaisi was speaking at a public meeting in Mahabubnagar on Saturday night where he said, “Nobody is raising their voice in India and coming out on the streets to protest. What happened to this spirit? Is it because her name is Bilkis? Remember, God forbid, that this can happen with anybody.”
He said that the release of the convicts has sent a wrong message to women of the country, saying that they comprise 50% of its population.
The Hyderabad parliamentarian also criticised how the released convicts were reportedly garlanded. Mr Owaisi described rapists as worse than animals and urged the public to put themselves in the shoes of Ms Bano’s relatives and imagine the injsutice that was meted out to her.
Wading into the ongoing controversy over Tipu Sultan and V D Savarkar, Mr Owaisi paid glowing tributes to the former. “Tipu fought four wars against the British and Savarkar wrote four mercy petitions to the British,“ he said, adding that Tipu was not against Hindus but against those who sided with the British, including the then Nizam, the Marathas, and the Muslims and Christians who showed their allegience to the British.
