Asaduddin Owaisi questions Modi’s silence on F-35 sale to India

The AIMIM president also takes a dig at Yogi Adityanath; says antagonism towards Urdu is equivalent to antagonism towards the freedom struggle

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who boasts of a 56-inch chest in the country, was silent when US President Donald Trump announced, as if unilaterally, that America would sell F-35 jets to India.

Addressing a gathering at the AIMIM headquarters here on the occasion of the party’s formation day, he also hit out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his remarks against Samajwadi Party leaders that the latter send their own children to English medium schools but want others’ children to learn Urdu and become “maulvis”.

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Owaisi said antagonism towards Urdu is equivalent to antagonism towards the freedom struggle.

Referring to PM Modi’s meeting with Trump during his recent visit to the US, Owaisi quoted the US President as saying ‘we will sell Narendra Modi F-35’.

“He (Trump) will decide or we will decide (about it)? Our prime minister, who boasts of 56 inch (chest) in the country, was silent there. Who is Trump to decide about me? Mr Modi. I will decide whether I want F-35, European fighter or whatever I want and not Trump. How did you listen to him there?” he said.

Owaisi, who took a dig at Adityanath, also alleged that the BJP wants to make this country as per ‘one language, one religion, one ideology and one leader’.

Adityanath had slammed the Samajwadi Party for demanding translation of Assembly proceedings in Urdu, saying, “They send their children to English medium schools, but when the government wants to extend this opportunity to others’ children, they (SP leaders) say ‘teach them Urdu’… they want to make these children maulvis. They want to take the country towards fanaticism (kathmulla-pan).” Owaisi said he would like to inform the Uttar Pradesh chief minister that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had said whoever gives a speech in the Parliament their speech will be translated into Urdu and other languages.

The AIMIM chief said Adityanath does not even know that Urdu is a part of Uttar Pradesh’s culture.

“People of RSS and BJP don’t know that Urdu is protected by the Constitution, like other languages. They do not know that every Muslim doesn’t speak Urdu, this is not the language of Muslims. This has been the language of the country’s freedom. This is the language of this country,” he said.

In an apparent reference to the Ram temple in Ayodhya, he said it is often said in the media that a temple was demolished 400 years ago.

He quoted a foreign author as having said in a book that Pushyamitra Shunga of Shunga dynasty demolished thousands of Buddhist places of worship and a Pallava ruler as having taken away a Ganesh idol.

Chinese scholar Hiuen Tsang wrote that King Shashanka cut down the Bodhi tree, Owaisi said.

“They tell me to speak up. What do I have to do with Mughals?…They were emperors. Emperors have no religion. Emperors use religion to expand their rule… What happened 500 years ago, what to do about it in the present,” he said.

Referring to PM Modi appreciating the recent film ‘Chhava’ which showcases the bravery of Sambhaji Maharaj, he said the BJP should give reservations to Marathas if it has love for him.

The AIMIM leader also alleged that the NDA government is bringing in the Waqf bill to make a legislation on Waqf “on the basis of hatred for Muslims and to take away mosques from Muslims”.

Owaisi favoured bail for student activist in Delhi Umar Khalid and others who have been in jail for more than five years.