All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday slammed the Uttar Pradesh government's double standards on treatment for Kanwar Yatris, contrasting it with the Yogi government's treatment of the state's large Muslim minority.
"BJP-led UP government showering flower petals on Kanwariyas using public money. We want them to treat everyone equally. They don't shower flowers on us (Muslims) instead, they bulldoze our houses," Owaisi said to news agency ANI.
"Treat everybody equally, what happened to 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vishwas'?" he wondered.
"If a Muslim offers prayers in an open place even for a few minutes, it leads to a row. Muslims are facing police bullets, custodial clashes, NSA, UAPA, lynchings, bulldozers just for being Muslims," the AIMIM leader added.
"Cops are showing petals on Kanwaria, applying lotion on their feet. Delhi Police removed blacksmiths from their route so that Kanwarias do not get upset, the UP government banned meat on their route. Is it not revadi culture?" Owaisi tweeted.
Communal incidents on the rise in UP
Owaisi's comments came at a time when several incidents of Muslims offering namaz in a public place in Uttar Pradesh have been reported and arrests have been made.
After the LuLu Mall row in connection with which several Muslim youth have been arrested, an elderly man was caught offering namaz in front of a government official's residence in Gorakhpur.
In another recent incident, a video showing a man offering namaz allegedly at a shopping complex in Meerut has surfaced on social media.
But the situation can, and has, gotten much deadlier than that in the past.
In 2013, between August to September, conflicts between Hindus and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh state resulted in at least 62 deaths, including 42 Muslims and 20 Hindus and injured 200 and left more than 50,000 displaced.
Yogi no stranger to controversy
CM Yogi Adityanath has also courted more than his share of controversy.
In an undated video that surfaced on YouTube during August 2014, Adityanath, reportedly during a public speech at Azamgarh, referring to the religious conversions due to inter-religious marriages, has said, "if they take one Hindu girl, we will take 100 Muslims girls."
In the same video, he continues by saying, "if they kill one Hindu, there will be 100 that we" and pauses, as the gathered crowd shouts: "kill".
In February 2015, while speaking at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s ‘Virat Hindu Sammelan’, Adityanath commented: "If given a chance, we will install statues of Goddess Gauri, Ganesh and Nandi " — Hindu deities — "in every mosque."
In June 2015, Adityanath, while talking about Surya Namaskara, and Yoga said that those who want to avoid Yoga can leave Hindustan. He "requested" those who see communalism in the Sun God to "drown themselves in the sea" or live in a dark room for the rest of their lives.
During an intolerance debate in the media in late 2015, Adityanath commented that actor Shah Rukh Khan was using the same "language" as Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed.
