Flagging ‘hate crimes’, Owaisi fields candidates from 3 Rajasthan seats won by Cong, more to follow

The AIMIM is expected to field more candidates in the November 25 Assembly polls.

Through his rallies, Owaisi has been raising multiple issues including growing hate in the last nine years, “neglect” of minorities by both the BJP and Congress resulting in impoverished children and illiterate adults in the state, Nasir-Junaid case, and a hate crime aboard a train while comparing Rajasthan and Telangana’s response to it.

He has also been asking the Muslim community to unite for a “political leadership” and send a “leader” to the Assembly.

Of the three AIMIM candidates named so far, state party president Jameel Khan is contesting from the Hawa Mahal seat in Jaipur, Javed Ali Khan from Fatehpur in Sikar, and Imran Nawab from Kaman in Bharatpur.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi addresses a rally in Sikar’s Fatehpura over the weekend.

These seats are currently held by the Congress: Hawa Mahal is represented in the Assembly by cabinet minister Mahesh Joshi, Kaman by minister of state Zahida Khan, and Fatehpur by Hakam Ali Khan.

In the 2018 polls, Joshi had got over 50 per cent of the total votes polled in Hawa Mahal, defeating the BJP’s Surendra Pareek with a margin of 5.47 per cent or over 9,200 votes. In Kaman, Zahida trounced the BJP’s Jawahar Singh with a margin of about 21 per cent or 39,630 votes. In Fatehpur, Hakam beat the BJP’s Sunita Kumari by just 860 votes.

Jameel Khan, an educationist, is the director of “We Can” schools. Khan’s relatives include several IAS and RAS officers and state OBC Commission chairman Justice Bhanwaru Khan (retired).

Khan’s grandfather was Jabodi Khan, who had contested the Assembly election from Deedwana in 1977 on the Janata Party ticket but lost to the Congress candidate by 2,600 votes. Of about 2.5 lakh voters in the Hawa Mahal seat, about 1.35 lakh voters are said to belong to the Muslim community. Both Congress and BJP are yet to declare candidates here.

Imran Nawab, a social worker, has been associated with the state AIMIM for the last two years. He has also been its in-charge of four districts. The Kaman seat too has about 2.5 lakh voters, of which 1.5 lakh are said to be Muslims. Here too, neither of the two major parties has announced their candidates so far.

In Fatehpur, Muslims and Jats are dominant communities, with each accounting for 25-30 per cent voters. The AIMIM’s nominee in the constituency, Javed Ali Khan, is a lawyer. While the Congress has repeated its sitting MLA Hakam Ali Khan, the BJP has fielded Shravan Choudhary here.

Addressing several rallies over the weekend in Hawa Mahal and Fatehpur, Owaisi said if the minorities, Dalits and backwards want justice, they will have to ensure the success of their political representatives. “If your candidate is successful and becomes an MLA, then he will understand your pains and raise voice against your injustices. In Indian democracy, you won’t get justice until you successfully elect your representative,” he said.

Owaisi flagged the hate crime by RPF constable Chetan Singh Chaudhary, who killed four persons aboard a train — including one each from Jaipur and Hyderabad.

He said his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, an MLA, raised the issue of adequate compensation for the Hyderabad victim in the Telangana Assembly, which was accepted by the BRS-led state government with money being deposited in his kin’s accounts and his wife given a job.

“This is because AIMIM has seven MLAs in Telangana. But when Asgar Sheikh’s body came to Rajasthan, did the state government give anything, no. Why? Because there is no one to fight (for it) here. There is no one to raise the voice here,” Asaduddin Owaisi said.

He has also been comparing the budgets for the minorities in the two states, saying Rajasthan has just Rs 250 crore for it as compared to Rs 2,200 crore in Telangna.

The AIMIM chief said 1.3 lakh Muslim children study for free between classes 6-12 in the government residential schools in Telangana and that in the last nine years, 80,000 have passed Class 12 from these schools. “They are becoming doctors, engineers, IPS, SDM … isn’t this possible in Rajasthan?” he asked.

Another talking point in Owaisi’s addresses has been the Nasir-Junaid murder case. He said that ever since the BJP government has come to the helm at the Centre, “hate has certainly increased in India, as well as mob lynchings”. He said that to “put an end to this era of injustices” the minorities need to elect their political voice in the Assembly, projecting the AIMIM’s claim in this regard.

He asked why there was a month-long delay by CM Gehlot in visiting Nasir-Junaid’s families in Ghatmeeka. He said in the 2018 polls, the Congress got 39 per cent votes of which the share of minorities was 11 per cent, but unlike Telangana there is no minority leader heading the home ministry in Rajasthan. “Gehlot knows you aren’t going anywhere. But this will have to change…”

Calling Gehlot and the BJP’s ex-CM Vasundhara Raje as “brother-sister” who have been taking turns to rule the state, he said “their parties are two sides of the same coin”. This is why Muslim children have the highest prevalence of anaemia at 60 per cent in the state with 37 per cent Muslims being illiterate. “Who is responsible for this?” he asked.

Owaisi charged that the Congress and the BJP were on the same page that “everyone can have a leader except you (Muslims)… (they) don’t want Muslims to have political power.”

“The manner in which Sachin Pilot wants to become a leader of Gujjars, the manner in which (Kirori Singh) Bainsla saheb worked, the manner in which our Rajput and Jat brothers made their leaders – I want that such a leader rises from Bhatta Basti who becomes a leader for all the poor of Rajasthan,” Owaisi told a rally in Hawa Mahal.

He said the AIMIM is accused of being a “vote-cutter”, but his life’s aim is  “jodna (bringing together) and not todna (breaking)”. He said the AIMIM had not contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Rajasthan when the Congress had lost all 25 seats to the BJP.

Muslims account for over 9 per cent of the population in Rajasthan, with the community playing a significant role in 35-40 Assembly seats out of the state’s 200 seats.