Bhopal: Taking a dig at the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president, Asaduddin Owaisi, for the latter's 'Godse's Hindutvavadi' statement regarding an Indore incident, home minister Narottam Mishra said here on Tuesday, “There's rule of law in Madhya Pradesh and no one will be allowed to breach communal harmony in the state.”
Mishra was responding to journalists' questions on Owaisi's tweet appearing on Tuesday which read, " 'Virat hindutvavadi' sometimes hit a Muslman faqir and sometimes get a crowd to beat a bangle seller to make people to see them as 'virat' (giant). This ‘kamjarfi aur kamtari’ (ungenerous and inferior thought) is a result of Godse’s Hindutvavadi thinking.” Owaisi also warned that, if society did not fight such a kind of thinking, it would spread like cancer.
The home minister said those who hid their names and identity were criminals and Asaduddin Owaisi should understand this. Those who were involved in beating the bangle seller in Indore had faced action.
The home minister added that the FIR filed against Urdu poet Munawwar Rana in Guna for his controversial statement on Maharshi Valmiki was transferred to Lucknow. On Monday, at a programme in Ujjain, the home minister had taken exception to Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh's tweet on the Ujjain incident, saying Singh should lead such elements who raised 'Pakistan zindabad' slogans to Pakistan.
In the Indore incident that Owaisi referred to in his tweet, a bangle seller was allegedly beaten up on Sunday by a group of men who were said to be members of a Right-wing outfit, on the charge that he hid his name to impersonate a Hindu, and harassed girls and women in the name of selling bangles. While the police arrested several persons for being involved in violence against the bangle seller, Tasleem Ali, they also booked the bangle seller under sections 354, 354 (A), 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO). The police seized two Aadhaar cards from the bangle seller, according to the police.
Legal opinion
Home Minister said, "The state government is seeking legal opinion on Muslim organizations demands to ban People Front of India (PFI)." A section of people have accused PFI of instigating violence after beating up of the bangle seller in Indore, according to police.
‘Prelude to inciting communal conflict’
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday slammed the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government after a bangle seller was thrashed by a mob in Indore and said such incidents are a "prelude to inciting communal conflict, violence and polarisation in the run-up to the next round of state assembly elections".
