New Delhi: Akbaruddin Owaisi, leader of All India Majlis-e Ittihad al-Muslimin (AIMIM) and member of Telengana Legislative Assembly, is often in news for all the wrong reasons.
Younger brother of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Akbaruddin is infamous for his venomous speeches. Be it his death threats against novelists Tasleema Nasreen and Salman Rushdie or his controversial statement against former Prime Minister P V Narsimha Rao, he has created quite a reputation for himself.
Recently he termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘shaitaan and zaalim' while addressing an election meeting at a village in Kishanganj in Bihar which has a 70% Muslim population. Now a police case has been filed against the Telangana MLA for using derogatory language against the Prime Minister.
Akbaruddin was even arrested and sent to jail for his most controversial speech till date. In his two-hour long speech in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh on December 28 2012, he had allegedly said that 180 million Indian Muslims needed only 15 minutes without the police to show one billion Hindus who is more powerful.
His speech drew severe criticism from all quarters and a demand for action against him raised vociferously. He was arrested on January 8, 2013 and subsequently spent 40 days in jail.
Despite all his speeches, Akbaruddin enjoys support from his community, especially in Hyedarabad.
On question-and-answer website Quora, answers to the question “What do Indian Muslims think about Akabaruddin Owaisi?” give quite an interesting perspective.
A blogger Asim Mohammed, who is a mechanical engineer by profession, gives a clear answer to that question.
Here is his answer to the question, “As a fellow Muslim, I probably hate Akbaruddin Owaisi more than any Hindu who has witnessed his speech live (if by any chance anybody has).”
Asim cites religious teachings of Islam which “Strictly forbids saying anything against deities of another religion.”
“He is not just making things hostile between the two communities, but, ruining the minds of lesser educated Muslim youths,” says Asim.
Asim puts him in the categories of Hindu hardline leaders and says, “Parasites like him, and the Yogi, the Togodia and the Sadhvi are the biggest threat our nation is facing.”
