Owaisi dares PM Modi to go for early Lok Sabha elections

MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold early general elections -- othewise to be held in 2019 -- and said people were "ready to teach him and his BJP a lesson".

"His four-year rule has not given anything except disappointment. The people are also keenly waiting for the elections to teach him and his party a lesson," Owaisi told a meeting held to mark the 60th anniversary of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).

The Hyderabad MP asked his party to be ready for early Lok Sabha elections and challenged Modi to dissolve Parliament and "face the people".

Referring to the humongous bank fraud involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, he asked the Prime Minister to explain what happened to his promise of 'Na khaunga, na khane doonga' (neither will I take bribe, nor will I allow others to do it).

The MIM chief also demanded that Narendra Modi explain the threats from Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and right-wing outfits to send Indian Muslims to Pakistan if they raised voice against the killings and lynchings.

"I ask -- why did they not send people who committed fraud on the country and looted the public money from banks?"

Greeting the Hindu community on Holi festival, Owaisi said all attempts to brand his party as anti-Hindu had failed and that every community stood with the MIM due to its hard work and honesty.

"The sangh parivar should know that saffron alone is not the colour of India. The beauty of India is that it emerges from the merger of all colours -- be it saffron, green, white or black. All colours belong to India," he said.

After hoisting the MIM flag at the party headquarters Darussalam, Owaisi said both the BJP and the Congress would be routed in the next elections in Telanagana.

"I challenge the two parties to pick up the strongest candidates -- not jokers -- to fight from Hyderabad. Let the Prime Minister address 10 meetings in the city. Still the Hindus, Muslims, Dalits and Christians will ensure MIM's victory by more than two lakh votes," he said.

Defending the MIM's decision to contest elections in other states, he said contesting elections and participating in the democratic process was the right given under the Constitution and it was the only way in which the Muslims could strive to secure their fundamental rights in the country.

He said the party had an influential role in Telangana, and members in Maharashtra Assembly and civic bodies, apart from presence in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh.

Tracing the 60-year journey of the MIM, which was revived as a political outfit by his grandfather Abdul Wahed Owaisi on March 2, 1958, amid turbulent times after the police action in Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi said the biggest contribution of his party was to strengthen public confidence in democracy and the Constitution of India.

Rejecting the charge that the MIM was derived from the Razakar militia, Owaisi said: "MIM is a party of nationalists and patriots who embody the spirit of secularism, pluralism and knows how to fulfil its reponsibility. (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah was asked to go to Pakistan. Razakars went to Pakistan but all nationalist Muslims stayed back," he said.

He lashed out at the Congress, calling it "janeudhari party" (driven by class compulsions) and asked why its Muslim members of Parliament remained silent when the Sharia "came under attack in Parliament".

"They also remained silent when the Babri Masjid was demolished," Owaisi charged.