All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday said that while he is opposed to the Popular Front of India’s approach, he does not support banning the organisation.
Mr Owaisi was speaking at party headquarters in Darussalaam where he said that the apex court held that merely supporting an outfit is not enough to attract the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Describing the ban as draconian, Mr Owaisi said that it is akin to a ban being imposed on any Muslim who wishes to speak his mind. “The way India’s electoral autarky is approaching fascism, every Muslim youth will now be arrested with a PFI pamphlet under India’s black law, UAPA,” he said, adding that many Muslims have spent years behind bars before being acquitted by courts of law. This, he said, is against the principle of liberty which is a “basic structure of the Constitution”.
Mr Owaisi sought to know why other organisations that are associated with the Ajmer bombing were not banned. “Why has the government not banned any right-wing majoritarian organisations?” he sought to know.
He said that the AIMIM opposes radicalisation and extremism. “If you are saying that radicalisation is happening only on one side, then no, it is happening everywhere,” he said, adding that lynching and the utterances of speakers at the Dharam Sansad are examples of radicalisation.
In the past few days, the National Investigation Agency embarked on a crackdown on the PFI and raided who, it said, are associated with the now-banned organisation. Raids were conducted in Hyderabad as well.
