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How can the country’s second highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan, be given to Advani who was facing criminal cases (in connection with the Babri masjid demolition), Owaisi said.
AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has kicked up a row by questioning the Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan awards being given to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP patriarch L K Advani.
How can the country’s second highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan, be given to Advani who was facing criminal cases (in connection with the Babri masjid demolition), Owaisi said here at a book release function last night.
“The same L K Advani, who spread destruction in the country with his ‘Rathyatra’…This could probably be the first instance of Padma Vibhushan being given to a person who is facing criminal cases,” the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen leader said.
As to Vajpayee, Owaisi alleged that the BJP stalwart had made some controversial comments on the Ayodhya issue, the videos of which were available on the YouTube.
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“Have we forgotten December 5 (1992)? The same Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had said ‘we are going to level the ground’ (has been now given the Bharat Ratna),” he claimed.
Reacting to Owaisi’s statement, senior BJP leader and Union Minister MoS Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi sarcastically said that it appeared some people want that Osama Bin Laden should be given a great award.
“That’s why those people will question the awarding people who have contributed and given sacrifices for the country, because it does not suit them, and the people who suit them are the ones who are against the country,” he said.
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BJP spokesman Sudhanshu Dwivedi said the efforts to take a “communal direction” by people like Owaisi on the basis of baseless and misleading issues doesn’t come as a surprise to the party.
“I would only say that people who are dreaming to expand their political career in India on the basis of communal hatred can only be expected of things like these,” he said.
With its electoral curve showing an upward trend in Maharashtra, AIMIM is now focusing on Uttar Pradesh in an apparent move to make inroads into the support base of Samajwadi Party and BSP.
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90-year-old Vajpayee, who is held in high esteem across the political spectrum, was conferred with Bharat Ratna on March 27 by President Pranab Mukherjee.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
First published on: 04-05-2015 at 07:24:56 pm
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