Not poha, labourers must only have halwa to be called Indian: Owaisi

Taking a dig at BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya over his 'poha' remark, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said that labourers should only eat "halwa" as then only will they be called "Bharat ka shehri" (citizens of India). Else, they will be called Bangladeshi, he remarked.

"Labourers should not have poha but only HALWA and HALWA and will be called Indian, Bharat ka Shehri otherwise B.......... hope '9 pm nationalist' will not take offence," Owaisi tweeted.

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha lawmaker's remarks came after Vijayvargiya at an event in support of Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Madhya Pradesh's Indore had said that he suspected some of the construction labourers working at his house were Bangladeshis as they only ate 'poha' (flattened rice), which aroused suspicion about their nationality.

The BJP leader is facing a lot of flak on social media for his comments.

"If eating poha is the criteria, my dad will be an illegal immigrant every day," Teju, a Twitter user wrote.

"I did not know that I was eating Bangladeshi food for the whole of my life. Kanda poha is one of the favourite breakfasts of Maharashtra. Kanda poha is a precondition of marriage," another Twitterati wrote.

Some Twitter users also linked Owaisi's 'halwa' jibe with the recent customary 'halwa ceremony' held at the Finance Ministry before the printing of the Union Budget starts.Owaisi had on Tuesday questioned the tradition, citing the Arabic origin of the sweet delicacy's name.

"Halwa is an Arabic word and not a word of either Hindi or Urdu. Now you have become Arab. They should shun halwa word as it is an Arabic word. You have seen the Finance Minister saying hello to halwa. There is nothing wrong with this. But they say they will change names," he had said while speaking at a gathering in Telangana's Karimnagar.

"If God wants, people of the country will change them. From where did halwa come? Remember, I am not halwa but red chilli," the AIMIM chief had said.