Ahead of the Bihar assembly elections, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday lashed out at Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for their "silence" during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests earlier this year.
"I want to tell Congress, RJD & their clones: your silence during the agitation is not forgotten. While BJP leaders were calling people of Seemanchal 'ghuspethiye', RJD-INC didn't open their mouths once," he tweeted.
Owaisi also made some sharp remarks in response to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's Vijaya Dashmi speech. In his annual address, Bhagwat spoke about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the abrogation of Article 370.
"The CAA does not oppose any particular religious community, but those who wanted to oppose this new law misled our Muslim brothers by propagating a false notion that it was aimed at restricting the Muslim population," Bhagwat said.
He added, "Using CAA, opportunists unleashed organised violence in the name of protests. Even before something could be thought out, coronavirus crept in. In the background, the efforts by rioters and opportunists to reignite the conflict still continue."
Responding to the RSS chief, Asaduddin Owaisi said, "We're not kids to be 'misguided." "BJP didn't mince words about what CAA+NRC were meant to do. If it's not about Muslims, just remove all references to religion from the law? Know this: we'll protest again & again till there are laws that require us to prove our Indianness..," he added.
Meanwhile, Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has joined hands with Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party to form the Grand Democratic Secular Front. Other members in the alliance include Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, former RJD MP Devendra Prasad Yadav’s Samajwadi Janata Dal (Democratic), former UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar's Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and the Janvadi Party Socialist.
The Bihar elections are all set to take place in three phases over a period of 11 days. Voting for the first phase will take place on October 28 and will cover 71 assembly constituencies, while the second-phase voting will take place on November 3 and will cover 94 seats. The third phase of voting will be on November 7 on 78 assembly seats.
