Shaukat Ali, the president of AIMIM Uttar Pradesh, has been accused of making an inflammatory statement during a speech where he claimed that individuals who threaten Muslims marry one woman but have other mistresses and have illegitimate children with them. A day after making the controversial comments at a gathering in Sambhal, he was charged with disturbing with intercommunal harmony.
The AIMIM leader claimed in the video that went viral and prompted legal action against him that even when Muslims marry twice, they honour both partners, in contrast to "you," who only marry once but maintain three mistresses.
"When BJP starts losing ground, they go after Muslims...They say Muslims have more children; sometimes they said we marry twice. Yes, it's true that we marry twice but give respect to both wives, but you marry one and keep three mistresses and no one gets to know. You give respect to none of them," Shaukat Ali said.
Ali, however, asserted that he never made any reference to a specific community in response to the widespread criticism that followed the virality of his film.
"Even if we marry 2 women, we give equal respect to them, some people marry once but have 3 wives outside and hide them from society. I was only talking about such men, I didn't mention 'Hindu', my intention was not to hurt the sentiments of any community," he told news agency ANI.
